The European Integration perspective in Western Balkans- A case study of Serbia

Sammanfattning: The turbulence of the war in the Balkans has been an external motivation for a rapid development of the European foreign policy, to establish security and stability through various instruments. It implied intensification to initiate a foreign policy towards integration of the Western Balkans i.e. through economic and political assistance provided by the Stability Pact (SP) & the Stabilisation Association Process and (SAP), and Especially through the regional approach. In connection with the new policy towards the Balkans, the EU has in particular expressed the crucial role of Serbia due to the fragile and postponed transition to Democracy and participation in the process of integration. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the foreign policy objective towards integration. By means of studying how the integration perspective is framed i.e. what underlying aspect are there in the objective towards integration of the Western Balkans? Hence, there is also an aim to lay weight on Serbia, since Serbia's partaking as well as its own political and economic progress is essential to the foreign policy towards integration. The interest is to examine the European Unions strategies towards Serbia, and thus analyze the underlying interests behind these strategies. Thus, the thesis emphasise that the task of the integration perspective is not mainly related to security and economic interests but also with an normative ambition; foremost building and enforcing the norms required to guarantee democratic development and political stability. The EU: s more rationale interests such as economic development and security are correlated and also embedded in the EU: s normative concerns. The strategies employed by the EU towards Serbia has particularly had the ambition to create political stability and in turn increase the security throughout the Balkans, and thereby decrease the risk for further conflict around Europe’s borders. For instance he support towards the democratic entities is of high priority as well as the promotion of European norms and rules.