A Date for Belgrade? Conditionality, German leadership and Serbia’s path to the EU
A Date for Belgrade? Conditionality, German leadership and Serbia’s path to the EU

Author(s): Bodo Weber
Subject(s): International relations/trade, Post-Communist Transformation, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: DPC Democratization Policy Council e.V.
Keywords: Serbia and EU; Serbia and Kosovo; Conditionality;
Summary/Abstract: In the space of less than a year, relations between the EU and Serbia’s new government have undergone a remarkable transformation. The government’s intentions appeared suspect, or at least uncertain, to most foreign observers. Yet in the end the concessions and compromises offered by Belgrade went far beyond what Brussels ever got out of the Tadić government over four years of a supposedly close partnership. The government has not only stayed the course of EU integration, but has also taken bold steps and taken the EU process more seriously than its predecessor. The agreements Belgrade signed in Brussels in April and May this year will, if implemented, lead to the integration of the Serb enclaves in north Kosovo into the Republic of Kosovo and the dismantling of any institutions of the state of Serbia on Kosovo’s soil.

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