IS ADDITIONAL CONDITIONALITY PREVENTING EU ACCESSION? SERBIAN DEMOCRATIC “STEP BACK”
IS ADDITIONAL CONDITIONALITY PREVENTING EU ACCESSION? SERBIAN DEMOCRATIC “STEP BACK”

Summary/Abstract: European Union integration of Western Balkan countries in conditioned on the fulfilment on the set of criteria aimed at profound societal change. However, there is a number of additional criteria within the EU enlargement policy for the Western Balkans and Serbia in particular. We have already designated this process as “culturalization” of accession criteria. It comprises of alterations of criteria from initial, identity-neutral and technical issues to coming to terms with the legacy of identity conflicts in the Balkan region. These conditions pose a significant challenge to political institutions in a not yet consolidated democracy. In this article we analyze how, as a result of additional conditioning, the EU accession, instead of enjoying social consensus, has reopened identity issues, divided the society and boosted discourses on “sovereignty”, “double standards of international community” and “injustice” perpetrated to Serbia at the time of disintegration of Yugoslavia.

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