Session

Journalism, Media and Communication

Description

The attractiveness of being a member of the EU for countries outside the Union has enabled the Union to begin demanding from candidate countries that they solve the problems they have with others, in particular their neighbours. Thanks to the appeal of its enlargement and conditionality as its main tool, the EU has started to play the role of a power broker in the rest of non-EU Europe. Particularly the Brussels-guided dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia since March 2011 with the main goal of “normalizing” relations between the two has seen the EU shift to an authentic peacemaker. By applying a comparative study as well as deductive, partial analysis of official documents, the paper will argue that had it not been for the conditionality that the EU exercises towards Kosovo and Serbia, the relations between these two countries today would constitute a deep and frozen crisis. It will prove that the enlargement possesses in itself an extremely high potential not only to force candidate and aspiring countries for EU membership to implement European values, but also to constrain them in solving the problems and crises of bilateral and regional nature before getting a ticket for entry into the Union.

Keywords:

EU, Enlargement, Kosovo, Serbia

Session Chair

Gjylije Rexha

Session Co-Chair

Ardnan Merovci

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-437-64-6

First Page

90

Last Page

98

Location

Durres, Albania

Start Date

28-10-2017 2:00 PM

End Date

28-10-2017 3:30 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2017.202

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Oct 28th, 2:00 PM Oct 28th, 3:30 PM

Power-Broking From Brussels: Serbia, Kosovo Tensions Flex The EU's Foreign Policy Prowess

Durres, Albania

The attractiveness of being a member of the EU for countries outside the Union has enabled the Union to begin demanding from candidate countries that they solve the problems they have with others, in particular their neighbours. Thanks to the appeal of its enlargement and conditionality as its main tool, the EU has started to play the role of a power broker in the rest of non-EU Europe. Particularly the Brussels-guided dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia since March 2011 with the main goal of “normalizing” relations between the two has seen the EU shift to an authentic peacemaker. By applying a comparative study as well as deductive, partial analysis of official documents, the paper will argue that had it not been for the conditionality that the EU exercises towards Kosovo and Serbia, the relations between these two countries today would constitute a deep and frozen crisis. It will prove that the enlargement possesses in itself an extremely high potential not only to force candidate and aspiring countries for EU membership to implement European values, but also to constrain them in solving the problems and crises of bilateral and regional nature before getting a ticket for entry into the Union.