3. SECURITY COOPERATION IN THE WESTERN BALKANS 3.1 EXTERNALLY DRIVEN COOPERATION The Western Balkan countries are connected to NATO and EU with multiple threads. Three countries(Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia) out of Western Balkan Six are members of NATO, Serbia and Bosnia are part of PfP(Partnership for Peace) program, while Kosovo aspires to be NATO member. A similar situation is present in relation to European Union: Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania are in accession negotiations, meanwhile the status of Bosnia e Herzegovina and Kosovo is to be decided in the future. Although relations between the countries of the Western Balkans“are determined by unresolved issues from the past, very intense regional security dynamics, as well as projections of the interests of global powers”, regional cooperation is seen as a step toward the construction of“a kind of security community in the region.” P9F 10 P The presence of NATO and EU has contributed to incentivize the implementation of a web of regional mechanisms(despite the ownership) that could facilitate security cooperation among the Western Balkan countries. A myriad of initiatives, some institutionalized with fully functioning secretariats and headquarters, and some limited on the level of projects, have been launched by or with the support of the EU. P10F P 11 The focus of EU financed mechanisms was to incentivize a regional approach in dealing with common security challenges(transnational organized crime, terrorism, natural disasters, environmental degradation, illegal migration,) and institutionalize the cooperation based on this framework. This multi-frontal engagement of the EU in fostering regional security cooperation created“the perception that this was a more externally driven project, rather than a necessity that internally derives from the region itself”. P11F P 12 The EU perceived the necessity to increase the ownership of security cooperation initiatives by transforming the 10 Djukić. P. Obradović. D.(2020)“The Fate of the Western Balkans Regional Security Subcomplex - The Necessity of Regional Cooperation” Security Science Journal, 1:2. http://www.securityscience.edu.rs/index.php/journal-security-science/article/view/27, accesed 2022. 11 Emini. D.& Marku. D.(2019),“Regional Security Cooperation in the Western Balkans”, Skopje: Institutite for Democracy“Societas Civilis”. https://idscs.org.mk/en/portfolio/regional-security-in-the-western-balkans­the-role-ofthe-berlin-process/ accesed 2022. 12 Marciacq, Florent.“The European Union and the Western Balkans after the Berlin Process Reflecting on the EU Enlargement in Times of Uncertainty.” FES South East Europe. 2017. Accessed 2022. https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/sarajevo/13948.pdf 9