Europeanising the ‘Kosovo Question’: Serbia’s Policies in the Context of EU Integration

Abstract

The issues of Kosovo independence and European Union membership have dominated Serbian domestic politics and foreign policy since the fall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000. Despite the lack of formal EU conditionality on the Kosovo issue, Serbia’s insistence on its uncompromising ‘no recognition’ of Kosovo policy has been detrimental to its EU candidacy aspirations. This article examines Serbia’s Kosovo policies in the context of EU integration, in particular the divergence between Serbia’s stance towards Kosovo and its aspirations towards EU candidacy. Considering the negative effects that the Serbia–Kosovo relationship has had on regional cooperation and Serbia’s EU integration, this article considers why Serbia appears to have failed to ‘Europeanise’ its Kosovo policies, i.e. to normalise relations in a way that would be more favourable to accession. In doing so, it examines Serbia’s Kosovo policies since 2000, and the ways in which domestic actors have deliberately manipulated and complicated the question of Kosovo and Serbia’s EU membership.

Notes

1. At the time of writing, the delayed decision has not been announced.

2. Serbia officially refers to Kosovo as ‘Kosovo and Metohija’. Metohija refers to a south-western part of Kosovo.

3. China and Russia have not recognised Kosovo. USA, Canada and most EU member states recognise Kosovo, but Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus do not.

4. The question of Kosovo in Serbian culture, history and politics is extremely rich and complex, and the debate is beyond the scope of this article. Briefly, the Kosovo question in Serbia has been used and manipulated by writers, cultural and political figures for a number of different, though mainly nationalist purposes (Bieber 2002; Greenawalt 2001).

5. The Kosovo and/or EU debate also captured the imagination of mainstream media which covered the status talks by dividing key actors into groups of ‘us’ (Serbs/Russians) and ‘them’ (Kosovo Albanians/US/UN/EU)’ (Erjavec and Volčiċ 2007: 76).

6. Formerly headed by Slobodan Milošević.

7. However, Serbia still officially calls Kosovo, ‘Kosovo and Metohija’.

8. Macedonia recognises Kosovo’s independence.