Tolerating Semi-authoritarianism? Contextualising the EU’s Relationship with Serbia and Kosovo

Abstract

This paper examines the EU’s position vis-à-vis the increasing semi-authoritarianism in post-Democrats-led Serbia and post-independence Kosovo. While welcoming the respective leaders, the Brussels authorities have regularly suggested that they expect a lot in terms of regional developments (primarily in the case of the Kosovo status question, but also in terms of Serbia’s problematic ambition to position itself between the East and the West), which in turn could be interpreted that as long as they were prone to respond to the EU’s demands, a whole range of domestic policies would be of secondary concern. By turning a blind eye in front of numerous moves and decisions, the EU has contributed to semi-authoritarian practices in the Western Balkans. Accordingly, whichever the level of support for the EU in the region, its involvement has revealed hypocrisy towards the EU’s core principles and values such as the rule of law and human rights. On the other hand, should the regime change become a priority, the Brussels administration would most likely start employing pressure on the elites, labelling their domestic policies as detrimental and not in accordance with the EU’s agenda. At this point, the semi-authoritarian behaviour would suddenly become highly problematic and the West could claim the need to come up with a new approach so as to allow Serbia and Kosovo to genuinely pursue processes of democratisation and Europeanisation.