EU influence on Serbia ‘overestimated’

In this Fondation Robert Schuman interview, Pierre Hassner, emeritus research director at the Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI) in Paris, comments on Serbia and the Western Balkans following the Serbian elections and the UN contact group report on Kosovo.

Hassner sees the current situation in former Yugoslavia blocked by different positions towards the proposition by the UN contact group on Kosovo, which he says is opposed by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, as well as the Serbian political class and Russia.

He thinks the EU’s arguments are too weak to make Serbia relinquish Kosovo. An alternative, he argues, is the maintenance of the current undefined status under international surveillance. Not only the US and Russia but also member states are of diverging opinions concerning the independence of Kosovo, Hassner explains.

The researcher warns that a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo could set a precedent to other former Yugoslav countries with ethnic minorities, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. 

Hassner estimates that the influence of the EU on Serbia with relation to the Kosovo issue is overestimated and adds that “no Serbian politician could afford to ‘let go’ of Kosovo, especially vis-à-vis its public opinion”. He goes on to say that there is a lack of mutual trust in EU-Serbia relations. 

Moreover, Hassner states that in view of the institutional crisis demanding a ‘pause’ for enlargement, the EU is currently incapable of integrating Serbia.

• Fondation Robert Schuman: Interview with Pierre Hassner (in French)
• Pierre Hassner: Recent and forthcoming publications