ASSOCIATION AND STABILIZATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN EU AND KOSOVO*

Abstract

Serbia and Kosovo are in the process of joining the European Union. Serbia is a candidate for membership in the European Union, while Kosovo is a participant in the Stabilization and Association Process. With the signing of the Brussels Agreement on April 19, 2013, conditions were created for the opening of a new phase in the relations between Serbia and Kosovo, as well as the continuation of their path towards the European Union. On January 21, 2014, Serbia began negotiations on accession to the European Union. A few months earlier, in October 2013, Kosovo opened negotiations with the European Union on the conclusion of the Stabilization and Association Agreement. The negotiations were successfully concluded and the agreement was initialed by representatives of Kosovo and the European Union on July 25 of the same year. On April 30, 2015, the European Commission proposed to the Council to make a decision on signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Kosovo. As the legal basis for concluding an agreement, the European Commission cited Articles 217 and 218 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, although these articles do not expressly provide for the possibility of concluding an agreement with entities that are not recognized states, that is, entities whose statehood is disputed. In this regard, the European Commission referred to the existing practice of concluding international agreements with such entities. During the negotiations, the European Commission took special care of the status neutrality of the agreement, so that in several places in the agreement it was expressly stated that nothing in the agreement prejudices the international legal status of Kosovo. The Stabilization and Association Agreement between the European Union and Kosovo was signed on October 27, 2015 in Brussels. The agreement, with certain exceptions, shows a lot of similarities with other stabilization and association agreements concluded by the European Union with the countries of the Western Balkans. Certainly the most important difference is that the agreement does not state the status of Kosovo as a potential candidate for membership in the European Union. Namely, membership in the European Union is open only to states, and Kosovo's independence has not been recognized by all EU member states. In addition, the agreement was signed only between the European Union and Kosovo, without EU member states, which represents a kind of precedent in the practice of concluding an association agreement. Special attention in the agreement is devoted to the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. In this regard, Kosovo has undertaken specific obligations, the possible violation of which may cause the immediate suspension of the Agreement by the European Union.