The Impacts of COVID-19 as an External Socio-economic Factor in the Real Convergence of the Western Balkan States Toward the European Union.

The Western Balkans have faced many challenges in the last two decades. Thus the path of socio-economic progress has not been easy at all. Continuous efforts over time in the arena were made to reduce the gap in the integration path toward the EU. Year 2019, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the European economy was placed in a new economic position. Unlike other known crises, dealing with such an unknown visa, social reactions, cultural conflicts, and the many restrictions that were imposed as a security measure affected the socio-economics of the EU states, questioning the degree of real convergence between the EU states and those of the Western Balkans. The purpose of this paper is to know the effect of the global and covid crisis on the convergence of the Western Balkan states as well as the convergence between the EU states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]