This article examines the causes and consequences of the limited progress achieved to overcome the lasting conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. This dispute shows that international and local politics in the Western Balkans are characterized by myopia-like symptoms. Whereas the USA remains focused on other areas of the globe, the EU continues to be divided over the issue of Kosovo statehood, while also exhibiting, for years now, a de facto enlargement fatigue. Fundamental differences among the two parties to the conflict and their diametrically opposed positions undermine the real perspective for lasting peace and EU integration, despite the fact that Serbia and Kosovo prepare to engage in new phases of dialogue. The article concludes that the vision of Europeanization and the EU membership for Serbia and Kosovo, as equal partners in a wider community of states, continues to remain the desire and aim of those whom exclude violence and fighting among neighbours.
European Foreign Affairs Review