Sustaining EU Actorness despite EU Council Disagreement – The Case of Germany’s Support for a Kosovo State

The central issue discussed in this paper is how EU Members States interact with the ‘actorness‘ of the EU in a situation defined firstly, by contested statehood and secondly, by lacking unanimity within the EU Council. This paper will look specifically at the internal EU dispute on the status of Kosovo in light of its Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 2008. This will be explored by tracing of the parallel negotiations to firstly, find a unanimous position on the status of Kosovo within the EU and secondly, prepare the EULEX mission. The focus will be on Germany, as EU representative and Chair in the final Troika negotiations on the Kosovo status prior to the UDI. It will be explored how within the Troika and in negotiations of the Council, a potential contested Kosovan state, was assessed. The paper will then evaluate how, after the UDI and the deployment of EULEX, Germany attempted to overcome the dispute on the status within the EU and with Serbia. It will be argued that prior to the UDI there was confidence from recognising states, such as Germany, that the establishment of EULEX and thereby a representation of EU ‘actorness’ would overcome inter-EU disputes on the status. In the aftermath of the UDI the EU took further responsibilities to reinforce this process, such as the negotiations for the Brussels Agreement. It will be argued that due to disagreement on the status among member states, confidence in the ‘actorness’ of the EU by the conflict parties was weakened. Thus substantial activities from some EU member states to support a wider international recognition of Kosovo continued in parallel to EU efforts.