De-Europeanization in the Balkans. Media freedom in post-Milošević Serbia

Abstract

While the Europeanization literature has focused extensively on analysing progress towards the adoption of the European model, scant attention has been devoted to cases of resistance and contestation, which may lead to the emergence of a new phenomenon identified as de-Europeanization. In order to inquire on this phenomenon, a case study analysis will be applied to Serbian media freedom. Is this sector undergoing a process of de-Europeanization while the country is progressing toward full EU membership? The analysis demonstrates the recent consolidation of a de-Europeanizing trend, coinciding with the return to power of former Milošević ruling parties.

Contesting the EU, Contesting Democracy and Rule of Law in Europe. Conceptual Suggestions for Future Research

“…Numerous studies show the mainly domestic origins of Viktor Orbán's rise to power and of his anti-liberal political project (see Buzogány 2017 among others). The same home-made roots can be found in the explanation of the AKP's rule and Erdogan's authoritarian turn in Turkey (Somer 2016); regarding the political crises related to the corruption scandals in Romania and the institutional tensions between president and government (Iusmen 2015); in the authoritarian turn of Vučić in Serbia (Castaldo and Pinna 2018); in the attempts to put the judiciary under the control of the executive in Poland by the government led by PiS (Przybylski 2018); or further back in the past, in Vladimír Mečiar's authoritarian attempt in Slovakia in the late 1990s (Haughton 2003). These are phenomena that are distinct in scope and outcome, but similar for the mostly domestic origin of the causes.…”

“…Serbia under Prime Minister Vučić is a good example of this occurrence, where a process of autocratisation is not accompanied by a disengagement between the EU and the national level. Several studies have shown how Serbia under Vučić's government has embarked on a process of autocratisation (Castaldo and Pinna 2018;Kapidzic 2020). At the same time, the government repeatedly restated its formal commitment to European accession and integration, although this approach has been considered instrumental to cover the ongoing autocratisation process.…”

‘Shunning’ and ‘Seeking’ Membership: Rethinking Citizenship Regimes in the European Constitutional Space

“…186 Some have suggested that in Serbia, for example, Europeanisation has gone into reverse. 187 Success stories such as the compromise reached between Greece and FYROM to rename the latter 'North Macedonia', with a view to freeing up NATO accession and eventual EU accession, are few and far between. 188 Certainly Euroscepticism is on the rise, both in terms of the rise of parties trading in nationalist, Eurosceptic and 'anti-Western' ideas 189 and in terms of a general weariness about the methods and approach of the EU and its Member States.…”

External Democracy Promotion in Time of Democratic Crisis: Linkage, Leverage, and Domestic Actors’ Diversionary Behaviours

“…In September 2015, during the height of the European migration crisis, Vučić commented on the EU's and Serbia's role in managing the influx of asylum-seekers, stressing how Serbia adopted a more humanitarian approach if compared with other EU states, and declaring that he was willing to receive migrants even if Serbia was not yet an EU member state: 'This makes us more European than entering its territory usually had the only goal to leave it as soon as possible. On the other hand, this approach, especially if compared with the fences built by Hungary (an EU member state) on the Serbian border, strengthened Vučić's image as stability provider, achieving political points with the EU also in terms of Serbia's accession process.This kind of diversionary behaviour helped the new Serbian elite to divert the EU attention from its inaction regarding necessary democratic reforms in areas such as the rule of law and media freedoms,67 persuading them to focus more on security issues and, at the same time, establishing themselves as the best security providers on the ground 68. This conclusion is shared by both EU and domestic actors:for example, an official of the European External Action Service interviewed in November 2017 69 acknowledged that the desire to resolve the disputed status of Kosovo persuaded EU and member state officials to play along, disregarding Serbia's problematic rule of law record for the sake of progress in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina; at the domestic level, Vukašin Obradović, President of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), in 2016 argued that 'EU officials have a quite tolerant attitude towards Aleksandar Vučić and the way that he treats the media.…”