The EU Enlargement as a Tool for the Transformation of the Serbia-Kosovo Conflict After 2008
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to analyse the impact and influence of the EU on the Serbia-Kosovo conflict after 2008 via the Serbian integration process. The author employs the analytical framework for studying the impact of the European integration and association on border conflicts. According to this framework, the impact of the EU on the conflict was both direct and indirect. The indirect impact was present in the pro-European orientation of the governments after 2008. But conditionality, as a direct tool, proved essential for the conflict transformation. The EU has used various phases of the integration process as rewards for progress in the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo to de-escalate the conflict. This confirms that the enlargement policy is the most effective foreign policy tool that the EU has at its disposal.
Keywords
Serbia, Kosovo, EU, conditionality, conflict, transformative power
Author Biography
Tereza Marošková
Tereza Marošková, born in 1989, she holds a master’s degree in European Studies and
International Relations from the Department of Political Science and
European Studies of Palacky University. She is currently a Ph.D. student at
the same department. Her research interests are the process of the
integration of the Western Balkan states into the European Union and the
impact of the EU on the conflicts between these states.