EU Member-state Building Strategies to overcome State Contestation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

EU candidate countries from the Western Balkans are contested in both their capacities (i.e. the ability to take and enforce policy decisions) and their legitimacy (i.e. the relations between state and society). These elements of state contestation hinder the main causal mechanism of Europeanisation, conditionality as reinforcement by reward, from unfolding its transformative effects (Börzel, Elbasani 2013). Nevertheless, the EU is not powerless. Statehood is not only an independent variable; the EU also influences statehood in its candidate countries in different ways. Based on the transformation of statehood in its member states, and on a notion of sovereignty as participation, the EU deploys strategies of “member-state building” aimed at consolidating those state structures necessary to participate in EU decision-making and policy implementation. The EU employs financial support and administrative twinnings to foster capacity-building, and the facilitation of political dialogue and negotiation to foster legitimacy-building. At the same time, it is limited in its actions by the need to stick to acquis-covered matters to ensure its consistency and legitimacy, and by the need not to thwart domestic democratic procedures. Through a case study on Bosnia and Herzegovina, I show how the EU has deployed different tools to react to state contestation and to previous failures of standard conditionality. The lack of administrative capacities has led to a stronger engagement with twinning programmes and financial assistance; the lack of political legitimacy has pushed for the creation of instruments of political dialogue (such as the Structured Dialogue on Justice) aiming at fostering domestic consensus on EU-related matters while respecting democratic procedures. Member-state building is a long-term EU strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, complementing the standard instruments of EU enlargement policy. It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to bridge the gap between state contestation and EU membership.