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Abstract:
Since the end of the conflict in 1999, the EU has been engaged in the reconstruction and reshaping of post-war Kosovo with different intensities and in different configurations. More than €2 billion of EU funds have been absorbed by the former Serbian province, and up to seven EU bodies have been working more or less independently from each other on the ground. Kosovo hosts the biggest Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) mission ever on its territory. Yet, the EU is lacking a strategic approach towards the self-declared state: whereas it has regarded the entity since 2003 as a potential candidate for enlargement and whereas the double-hatted EU/International Special Representative (EUSR/ISR) is helping Kosovo to affirm itself as an independent state by supervising its conditional independence, the EU ignores Kosovo’s statehood, which is already recognized by twenty-two of its members. This lack of strategy undermines the credibility of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)/CSDP and of the EU in general.
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