Governance quality in Western Balkan countries: are they converging with the EU?

The accession process of the six Western Balkan countries - Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - has been a long-standing issue and a stalled process in the EU's enlargement agenda. Notably, countries aspiring to join the EU are expected during the pre-accession phases to adapt and implement (converge) the acquis Communautaire in areas that include the quality of governance and the functioning of national institutions. Using the World Bank's six 'Worldwide Governance Indicators' that allow for the multidimensionality of governance, this paper examines through a battery of unit-root tests, whether the six Western Balkans have been converging with the EU in terms of governance quality. Moreover, the paper examines whether EU's neighbourhood policy as a whole bears a responsibility for the present stalemate and whether this complies with the so-called EU conditionality principle.