This paper analyses the implementation problems of the European Union’s (EU) most comprehensive agreement between Kosovo and the EU, namely, the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) and related them to the democratization process in Kosovo. The SAA aims to strengthen European integration and support Kosovo to fulfill European principles needed in order to become a member in the union. The agreement was signed in 2015 and annual progress reports have been published by the European Commission in order to evaluate the progress and shortcomings. These progress reports show that Kosovo has faced issues while trying to implement the SAA, mostly due to lack of strong democratic principles (judicial independence, public administration, institutions) and corruption. This paper also examines Kosovo’s democratization process since early 1980s in order to evaluate whether issues faced in the implementation of the SAA are related to poor democratization. By applying a case study design, analyzing relevant material and using democratization theory, this paper finds that Kosovo has undergone significant democratization, however, democratic consolidation is at an early stage and the problems faced there are of similar nature as those problems faced in the implementation of the SAA, hence why it is safe to assume that these issues are indeed related to one another.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-95837 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Mikullovci, Fatmir |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för statsvetenskap (ST) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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