Integration or Disintegration?

The effect of EU conditionality has been largelyapplauded in the case of enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe(CEE). Despite limitations it largely helped the CEE countriestransform from communist regimes to market economies and liberaldemocracies. In the case of the Western Balkans however theapplication of conditionality has deviated from this idealfunctioning. This work examines the case of Serbia where compliance has beenparticularly constrained. It focuses on cooperation with theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and thecase of Kosovo and finds shortcomings in both the EU's and Serbia's approach. On the onehand the EU has failed to produce satisfactory initiatives toencourage substantial Serbian compliance. On the other hand compliance isstalled because certain aspects of EU conditionality conflictwith the collective understanding of Serbian nationalidentity. This two-sided analysis draws on both rationalist and constructivistarguments and gives an in-depth account of Serbian Europeanization.The work is therefore useful both to scholars of European Studiesand scholars of nationalism.