Europa XXI (2025) vol. 49
Editorial: Unfolding Just Green Transitions in the Western Balkan Region
Europa XXI (2025) vol. 49, pp. 5-19 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2025.49.12
Abstract
Just Green Transitions (JGT) have become a central pillar of the European Union’s response to climate change, seeking to reconcile its environmental ambition with social and spatial justice. While extensively debated within Member States, less attention has been paid to how this policy paradigm unfolds in candidate and neighbouring countries. This editorial introduces a thematic issue that critically examines the translation of JGT principles into governance arrangements, instruments and practices in the Western Balkan Region, a particularly fertile context in which to explore opportunities, tensions and limits. It situates the thematic issue within broader debates on Europeanisation, spatial justice, and sustainability transitions, outlining the conceptual framework and key challenges shaping JGT in the region. It argues that understanding how green transitions are negotiated under conditions of structural disadvantage and political fragmentation is essential to assessing whether Europe’s green transition can also be just beyond the EU borders.
This issue and its contribution are framed in the research project European HORIZON – WIDERA 2021-ACCESS-02-01, Foster Research Excellence for Green Transition in the Western Balkans – GreenFORCE Twinning of the Western Balkans, grant number: 101059411.
Keywords: Just Green Transitions, European Union, Western Balkan Region, European Green Deal, Europeanisation
[giancarlo.cotella@polito.it], Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di Torino 39 Viale Mattioli, 10125 Turin: Italy
[info@cea.org], Center for Economic Analyses Bul. Jane Sandanski 63/3; 1000 Skopje: North Macedonia
[merita_toska@universitetipolis.edu.al], Co-PLAN Institute for Habitat Development
[zora.zivanovic@gef.bg.ac.rs], Department for Spatial Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade Studentski Trg 3/III, 11000 Belgrade: Serbia
Citation
APA: Cotella, G., Nikolov, M., Toska, M., & Živanović, Z. (2025). Editorial: Unfolding Just Green Transitions in the Western Balkan Region. Europa XXI, 49, 5-19. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2025.49.12
MLA: Cotella, Giancarlo, et al. "Editorial: Unfolding Just Green Transitions in the Western Balkan Region". Europa XXI, vol. 49, 2025, pp. 5-19. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2025.49.12
Chicago: Cotella, Giancarlo, Nikolov, Marjan, Toska, Merita and Živanović, Zora. "Editorial: Unfolding Just Green Transitions in the Western Balkan Region". Europa XXI 49 (2025): 5-19. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2025.49.12
Harvard: Cotella, G., Nikolov, M., Toska, M., & Živanović, Z. 2025. "Editorial: Unfolding Just Green Transitions in the Western Balkan Region". Europa XXI, vol. 49, pp. 5-19. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2025.49.12