The EU’s Enlargement Strategy on the Western Balkan – the case of Kosovo

This case study of Kosovo tries to establish how conditionality as main tool of the enlargement strategy of the European Union is influencing Kosovo. The European Unions is trying to solve the conflicts in former Yugoslavia by offering these countries a membership perspective. This study tries to judge in how far this is working for Kosovo, one of the most difficult cases for the enlargement strategy. It tries to answer the question in how far Kosovo is complying with EU conditions. Kosovo is compared to Montenegro in this study to see in how far nation-building and the status issue influence the Europeanization of Kosovo. The study is based on an analysis of EU documents of the Enlargement process: mainly the European Partnership agreements and yearly progress reports by the European Commission.