THE ECONOMIC AND FISCAL PERFORMANCE OF TURKEY AND WESTERN BALKANS IN THE PROCESS OF MEMBERSHIP TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: AN ASSESSMENT ON POST-GLOBAL CRISIS PERIOD

It is aimed to compare the economic and fiscal performance of Western Balkans and Turkey in the process of accession to the European Union. Turkey and the Western Balkans that consist of candidate (Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania) and potential candidate (Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina) countries are obliged to fulfill the criteria for the European Union's economic and fiscal cohesion. The Western Balkans have been forced to fulfill their obligations under the negotiating process, as the global crisis and the subsequent debt crisis seriously affects their economic and fiscal performances as well as European Union members. Economic and fiscal indicators such as real gross domestic product, unemployment, inflation, public deficit, public debt for the years 2008-2017 clearly demonstrate this. Despite the fact that Turkey less affected by global crisis vis-a-vis the Western Balkans has more positive outlook in terms of the indicators, the European Union stands closer to the Western Balkans compared to Turkey