The project focuses on one of the CCSDD's focus regions, the Western Balkans. The CCSDD has worked in and on the region since 2000, when tragic conflicts were ending, and new prospects were opening for societies in the Western Balkans. The "Europeanisation and Legal Reforms in the Western Balkans" project has been running since 2016 and is consolidating CCSDD research and teaching on the region.

Countries of the Western Balkans (WB) have made significant progress in democratic transition, constitutional change, and Europeanisation during the more than two-decade-long EU integration process, with EU membership prospects offered in 2003. It has been recognized that it is crucial to secure stable and efficient institutions to ensure long-lasting peace, consolidate democracy, uphold the rule of law, and promote economic progress. For this consolidation to materialize, utmost attention should be devoted to the development and strengthening of institutions that guarantee the democratic process and the rule of law in a complex Western Balkans context. As the transformation of the region is mainly driven by the European Union's influence and conditionality policy, the project focuses on the specificities of the current phase of integration, the impediments, and the challenges WB countries face, aiming to provide academic analysis and policy proposals to empower them.

The project has explored the relationship between the European Union and the Western Balkans from the perspective of differentiated integration, considering both current prospective relations. Particular focus is made on sectoral participation, regulatory alignment, and institutional cooperation beyond formal accession.

Currently, the project activities include exploring bilateral disputes between EU member states and candidate countries and how they influence EU conditionality and constitutional reforms in the region.

The project has so far contributed to numerous CCSDD activities and partnerships. These include regular teaching and the sharing of the latest research at the CCSDD's flagship program – the EU and Legal Reform Summer School. It has also led to cooperation with the International Development Law Organization and, in particular, its Eastern Europe and Central Asia program, as well as CCSDD becoming a partner in the Academic Research Network on EU Agencies and Institutional Innovation (TARN). Several CCSDD researchers are also contributing their expertise on the Balkans to the Jean Monnet module "EU Enlargement and Constitutional Transitions in the Western Balkans" run by the University of Udine.

Selected publications:

• Milenković, M., Vračar, S., & Pešterić, M. (2025). The Law of the Algorithmic State in Serbia. The Italian Journal of Public Law, 17(2), 766–785.


• Banović, B., Milenković, M., & Milenković, M. (2025). Nationalism, Clientelism, and Green Transition: Econativism and Environmental Politics in Pljevlja, Montenegro. East European Politics and Societies, 39(4), 981–1000. https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254251397670


• Milenković, M., & Ristić, I. (eds.) (2024). Memories, Identities and Current Conflicts – Mapping the Challenges of EU Enlargement to the Western Balkans. Wolters Kluwer, CEDAM.


• Milenković, M. (2024). The Western Balkans and European Union Enlargement – Exploring Possibilities of Differentiated Integration. In D. Fromage (ed.), (Re-)defining Membership: Differentiation in and outside the European Union. Oxford University Press, 273–290.


• Milenković, M. (2024). Administrative Procedures: General Principles and Sector-Specific Rules – Republic of Serbia. In G. della Cananea (ed.), General Principles and Sector-Specific Rules in European Administrative Laws. Oxford University Press.


• Kaeding, M., & Milenković, M. (2023). Candidate Countries’ Engagement with European Union Agencies – Alternative Modes of EU Integration? Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 25(6), 1002–1019.


• Milenković, M. (2023). Ukraine War: A Push Towards Differentiated Integration for the Western Balkans? In S. Keil, J. Džankić, & S. Kacarska (eds.), War in Ukraine & Western Balkan (Geo)Politics. European University Institute.


• Milenković, M. (2022). Trajectories of Differentiated Integration for the Western Balkans. In J. Trondal, S. Gänzle, & B. Lægreid (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Differentiated Integration in the European Union, 551–564.


• Milenković, M. (2022). EU Enlargement, Conditionality Policy and Prospects for the Integration of the Western Balkans. In L. Montanari (ed.), L’allargamento dell’Unione europea e le transizioni costituzionali nei Balcani occidentali.


• Pištan, Č., & Milenković, M. (2021). Administrative Simplification in the Western Balkans. Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo Online, 47(2).


• Kaeding, M., & Milenković, M. (2021). External Differentiation: Turkey’s Role in EU Agencies. EUI RSC Working Paper 2021/83.


• Milenković, M. (2020). Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Serbia. Percorsi costituzionali, 2/2019.


• Milenković, M., & Pešterić, M. (2020). Transition to Electricity from Renewables in Serbia – Integration with(out) Membership. In M. Mišík & V. Oravcová (eds.), Energy Transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, 515–543.


• Milenković, M. (2019). State Aid Control in Serbia – EU Conditionality and the Challenge of Institutional Reform. Wolters Kluwer, CEDAM.