Multi-level Games: The Serbian Government’s Strategy towards Kosovo and the EU under the Progressive Party

ABSTRACT

Since the signing of the historic ‘Brussels Agreement’ on 19 April 2013 on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the Progressive Party have oscillated between competing tensions emanating from seeking membership in the European Union and those stemming from the retention of Kosovo, including the party’s uncompromising position on non-recognition. Following two-level game theory, this paper offers a comparative analysis of the Progressive Party’s multi-level game strategy vis-à-vis Kosovo and the EU, arguing that while the initial success of the Brussels Agreement can predominantly be attributed to the rise in popular support for EU accession, Serbian policy towards Kosovo appears to be far less clear and often contradictory and therefore, Serbian government strategy cannot have been influenced by public opinion.

KEYWORDS:

• Kosovo
• european Union
• serbia
• EU conditionality
• multi-level games
• statecraft

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Four of the EU member states (Spain, Slovakia, Romania and Cyprus) who do not recognize Kosovo all have substantial minorities while Greece has neither and has not recognized Kosovo mostly out of support for the Cypriot position.

2. Twenty-seven former Ministry of Interior employees had withdrawn from the process while 23 had been refused for ‘security reasons.’

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Aleksandra Dragojlov

Dr Aleksandra Dragojlov was awarded her PhD in October 2018 from Cardiff University School of European Studies. Originally from Serbia, she specializes in Southeast European politics and EU integration. She focuses on how the semi-authoritarian regimes of Western Balkan states have hindered their prospects for EU integration as a result of political elites’ hardline nationalism that is still evident in these countries today despite their ‘political shift’ to being advocates of EU integration. Having received her Bachelor’s in foreign languages, Dr Dragojlov speaks Spanish and Italian with native proficiency, along with Serbo-Croatian and has a basic, beginner knowledge of French and Korean.