As hundreds of thousands of refugees make their way through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Croatia to other EU countries, the Western Balkans have remerged in international news headlines - once again with pictures of refugees with their few belonging walking on foot along routes, stuck on borders and making their way westwards. This renewed attention on the Western Balkans primarily highlights the larger weakness of the EU to address this challenge. The countries of the region have been places of transit, and the refugee trek has left its traces and is likely to have lasting, even if hard-to-predict repercussions on the region.
