UDC 339.92(497)
Biblid: 0025-8555, 72(2020)
Vol. 72, No 3, pp. 566-594
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2298/MEDJP2003566R

Оriginal article
Received: 21 Jul 2020
Accepted: 07 Sep 2020

“MINI-SCHENGEN” AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

RAPAIĆ Stevan (Naučni saradnik u Institutu za političke studije, Beograd), stevan.rapaic@ips.ac.rs

The paper analyses the idea of “Mini-Schengen” as a new opportunity for resolving disputes between the countries of the Western Balkans and as economic and political integration. The main advantages of membership in “Mini-Schengen” are the removal of customs and all other barriers in intraregional trade, which would enable domestic companies to place their products throughout the region with the lowest possible logistic costs while maximizing protection for their products and market access opportunities. Doubts about what exactly “Mini-Schengen” should assume and which countries of the Western Balkans would be members of this union are still numerous. In this paper, the author provided answers to some main issues about this possible integration. The paper analyses the macroeconomic situation in Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia, anticipating which countries would achieve the greatest benefit for their economy in the case of the establishment of “Mini-Schengen”. Political consequences of the “Mini-Schengen” are also analysed to provide an answer to which countries would achieve the greatest political benefit from this association, and which would suffer certain political damage. The author concludes that the main conception of “Mini-Schengen” is to create a single labour market, which would maintain a low minimum wage in Serbia and ensure stability in the influx of labour in order to keep the existing foreign investors and attract new ones.

Keywords: Mini-Schengen, Serbia, Albania, Northern Macedonia, CEFTA 2006