Balkans and Europe: identifying spatial development dimensions

The perspective of the Balkan countries’ integration in the economic and political space of the enlarged EU necessitates the unification of the Balkan space, through the unification of the areas’ spatial development axes. This fact is of major significance since the economic integration process in the Balkans does not have a discrete spatial dimension, phenomenon being in contrast to the respective one that takes place in Western Europe. This absence derives from political and historical reasons and is enforced by the creation of social diversifications in the Balkan countries’ internal environment. Furthermore, the implemented policies, especially in the last 15 years, have proved to be incompatible to the solution of the spatial integration problem. The purpose of this article is to investigate the level of the areas’ spatial integration process, to audit the main problems of this process and to propose specific development policies in order to confront these problems.