The European Union and everyday statebuilding in Kosovo

This thesis examines the European Union’s everyday statebuilding practices in Kosovo. Although there is an ample research on the EU’s work in Kosovo, the existing accounts have primarily focused on the performance of institutions and instruments of the EU, such as conditionality in the accession process, and do not sufficiently engage with the micro politics and the everyday dynamics that foreground the agency in the statebuilding process. The thesis focuses on examining the everyday practices and various actors that enable the EU to assert its power and influence over domestic decision-making process in rule of law and public administration, and conflict mediation. Drawing mostly on extensive field research and participant observation in Kosovo, this thesis expands our understanding of the EU’s statebuilding practices and its effectiveness. Contrary to the mainstream accounts on the EU, this thesis finds that the EU’s statebuilding capacity in the field is shaped by prudent conduct, improvisation, and pragmatic navigation attuned more to serve the immediate interests of EU’s actors rather than those of beneficiary communities. The very process of statebuilding is organized around creating a role for a protracted and embedded involvement of the EU rather than empowering local institutions and enabling local ownership over the statebuilding process. The thesis finds that what constitutes of the EU in everyday encounters is different from the perceived image of the EU as a normatively and organizationally consistent actor. What constitutes the EU to the local actors are the subcontracted experts from technical assistance projects, who are the norm entrepreneurs, but who lack proper supervision by the EU, and more than often improvise their input, such as best practices from member States or norm to solve complex local challenges. Ultimately, intermeshing of political and technocratic actors among the EU enables the organization to exert power, but also exposes many flaws which tend to undermine its image and long term impact. Thus, this empirical account of everyday statebuilding approaches of the EU makes an important contribution to the overall studies of the EU as an emerging global actor