Kosovo’s Environmental Development & the EU’s Role as a ‘Normative Power’ in the International System

Sammanfattning: Ever since Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, the EU has striven for a supportive relationship with the burgeoning new state; a relationship which can be seen to have been built upon the institution’s constitutive normative principles. This relationship has consequently resulted in a national emphasis upon environmental development throughout Kosovo. However, how beneficial has the EU’s promotion of these normative principles over Kosovo actually been for Kosovo’s environmental development? And subsequently, what are the potential consequences of the EU being perceived as an influential ‘normative power’ for other actors in the international system? This thesis has addressed these questions through conducting a series of semi-structured expert interviews, as to generate contemporarily relevant and applicable data which reflects the benefits of the EU’s operation in Kosovo and illustrates contemporary EU power exertion. Ian Manners’ theoretical conceptualisation of EU power, ‘Normative power Europe’, provides the theoretical framework for the conducting of this research. This paper argues that the EU’s exertion of normative power over Kosovo has, overall, been beneficial for Kosovo’s environmental development through wide-spread developments to key areas of Kosovo’s environmental sphere; however, there have also been certain shortcomings and failures of the EU in in this regard as certain key-areas of Kosovo’s environmental sphere, regardless of the long-term presence of the EU in Kosovo, remain largely underdeveloped. This conclusion can be employed in order to draw reflections on the potential consequences of the perception of the EU as an influential ‘normative power’ for other actors in the international system; other international actors could move away from more traditional conceptual approaches to power/ influence exertion in the international system, and developing states could also grow to be more receptive to normative power exertion processes. Therefore, the presented conclusions are not only relevant to the case of Kosovo, but could also be employed in a more practical manner in exploring the role and consequences of the EU’s contemporary power exertion in the international system as a whole.