KOSOVO ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union today differs significantly from the integration project launched in the 1950s, originally conceived as a way to maintain peace and enable economic recovery among the six Western European countries, the EU has developed one of the strongest trading blocs in the world spanning most of the European continent.Disputes over the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and disagreements over policy reforms and the way in which funding has caused fundamental disagreements over the future direction of the EU. The sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone brought economic difficulties in many countries, prompting some analysts to conclude that the Monetary Union had indeed been a step too far from European integration.Regardless of the outcome of this debate, the European Union represents an extremely influential tool for European organization and constitutes a unique experiment of deep international cooperation. Economically, at least until the eurozone crisis, it has raised levels of prosperity. Politically it has fostered the democratic transition of the former fascist and communist dictatorships. Others accuse the EU of lacking transparency and accountability in its institutional processes, and some say European integration has led to the gradual erosion of national and cultural differences and traditions, while many citizens in countries affected by the difficult situation The financial crisis caused by the sovereign debt crisis began to call into question the legitimacy and sustainability of the European project.'Kosovo is facing a unique challenge and opportunity - internal reforms in the process of state building can simultaneously make the transformation needed to become an EU member state.