Informal and Formal Practices in EU-Kosovo Relations

The paper explores the link between informal and formal actors and rules in the security relations between EU and Kosovo. In particular, the dynamic of interactions between formal and informal actors and practices within the EU Common and Security Defence Policy mission in the area - the EU Rule of Law Operation - is analysed. It is hypothesized that security relations are affected by informality also in an high-institutionalised environment such as the one of the EULEX in Kosovo. The paper considers EU’s security policies adopting a political perspective of informal governance, and in particular considering them as an expression of the roles that the EU plays within the power structure of the contemporary global political system. Methodologically the paper use an analytical framework based on process tracing in order to unpack “the informality present in formal actors” and to discover the influence of informal actors and unwritten rules in the evolution of EULEX in a field traditionally considered as the exclusive domain of formal institutional analysis. The result of the analysis is that - despite the rhetoric on formal institutionalization by EU policymakers - in the reform process of the judiciary system and in contrasting organised crime (with EULEX), traditional formal actors act and behave following different logics, introducing informal arrangements and being inspired by informal networks. Within the process of security governance, also EU officials may be caught by improvisation and do not necessarily follow formal treaties. The alleged of corruptions and bribes of EU public servants in Kosovo shows the complex interaction between formal and informal governance and how endogenous practices may be internalised by external actors and vice-versa. These findings move to consider in a more comprehensive way EU’s security capacities and seem to mirror the shuffling momentum in the power dynamics at the global level.