Kosovo and Serbia

Abstract

As previous chapters mentioned, the Balkans case severely dented the EU and UN’s reputations, following genocide and ethnic cleansing on a scale not seen since the Second World War. While the 1999 NATO airstrike officially ended the conflict and the Dayton Accord was signed to indicate a peaceful resolution of the conflict, Kosovo and its relationship with Serbia were left over as unresolved issues and one that became increasingly unstable. Like Cyprus, both the EU and the UN became embroiled, albeit reluctantly in attempting to stabilize and democratize Kosovo. Kosovo’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 2008 was met with an incoherent and divided international response, whereby various EU and UN states refused to recognize Kosovo’s independence, despite the 2010 International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) verdict that the UDI was not in breach of international law.