A counter-hedging strategy for the European Union: A case study on the European Union-Serbia relationship
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2024-07-12
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en
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The aim of this study is to answer the research question “How has the EU’s response to Serbia’s hedging behaviour been shaped from 2012 to 2024”. This was done by conducting a content analysis on 235 different documents from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council. The results show that the EU counter-hedging strategy has mainly been shaped by its own interests of expanding into the Western Balkans. Even though Serbia was increasingly aligning itself with China and Russia, the EU maintained a high level of engagement with Serbia. Hedging behaviours from Serbia were barely directly responded to, aside from giving reminders how such behaviour might be detrimental to Serbia’s accession into the EU. It was only when Serbia was becoming an active threat towards the EU’s interests, especially in the Western Balkans, that the EU decided to threaten Serbia by cutting off funding and halting their EU accession negotiations. For now, the EU’s counter-hedging strategy has not paid off yet, but there is a chance it does so in the future as the situation is still developing. To judge its effectiveness, new studies are needed in the future to see how the EU’s counter-hedging strategy has worked in the long run.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen