In the Balkans, the EU is stuck between the Kissinger question and Merkel’s answers

Somewhere along the process of democratic transformation in Southeast Europe, enlargement – and the future of the Balkans – got mired in a mixture of miscommunication, lack of responsibility, and the illusion of stability. Conveniently, the hidden struggle to answer to the Kissinger question – who is in charge in Europe? – on behalf of the Western Balkan public has been met with deafening silence in Brussels, member states and Balkan capitals alike. That silence helped hide the elephant in the room.