CROSSING THE BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND PEACEBUILDING IN MACEDONIA

Abstract

This paper assesses how peace building in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has been implemented with a particular focus on the role of the European Union (EU). A general guiding question is, what are the impacts of the European Union’s condition for becoming its member on the peace building in Macedonia? The question further leads to answering how such impacts influence Macedonia’s politics in terms of the interethnic relations. We argue that the EU has generated positive impacts on the peace building process in Macedonia via setting up the political system characterized by racial management as a viable post-ethnic political project leading to being a peaceful and democratic state. The EU, moreover, can exert leverage on the implementation of such a project by attaching certain conditions to the success of reforms outlined by the Ohrid Framework Agreement and by heavily providing assistance mainly through development programs. However, albeit the EU’s remarkable success, there are certain side effects from such EU-led reforms, namely the intensification of the dichotomous division between the ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, thereby redoubling the exclusiveness of ethnic identity of each party. Other ethnic minorities such as the ethnic Turks and the ethnic Serbs receive less attention and have relatively limited space to address their grievances and interests which eventually slow down the peace building project in Macedonia.