This paper investigates how the European Union’s governance of critical raw materials (CRMs) influences the Europeanisation of Serbia, with a particular focus on the contested case of lithium extraction in the Jadar Valley. The study is situated at the intersection of two theoretical frameworks – Europeanisation and external governance – each capturing a distinct aspect of the EU’s influence beyond its borders. It builds on the assumption that candidate countries, though outside the EU’s legal-institutional framework, are subject to a complex mix of governance mechanisms designed to induce alignment with EU norms, policies, and institutional practices.
Using a qualitative case study design, the paper traces the instruments and modes through which the EU exerts influence in the CRM sector and assesses how these translate into observable domestic changes across five dimensions of Europeanisation: formal legal alignment, institutional and administrative adaptation, policy implementation, discursive alignment, and societal reception. The analysis draws on a wide range of empirical material, including EU legislation, Serbian legal documents, policy reports, media coverage, and original interviews.
Findings reveal that EU influence is highly asymmetrical, fragmented, and mediated by domestic political structures. While formal legal alignment has advanced incrementally, particularly with the adoption of revised environmental laws in late 2024, institutional adaptation remains limited, and implementation of EU-aligned policies is often obstructed by weak enforcement, regulatory evasion, and political interference. At the discursive level, Serbian government actors readily adopt EU rhetoric, framing lithium exploitation as part of a shared green transition. A key paradox emerges in the dimension of societal reception. Civil society actors and local communities, far from rejecting EU norms, mobilise against the Jadar mining project by invoking EU environmental standards and participatory rights. These bottom-up demands for accountability highlight the EU’s normative appeal while simultaneously exposing the Union’s limited leverage when environmental and rule-of-law commitments are subordinated to strategic supply interests. The paper argues that such tensions reflect a “two-way hierarchy” in which Serbia remains institutionally subordinate but gains bargaining power due to the EU’s material dependency on lithium for its industrial decarbonisation agenda.
These findings contribute to broader debates about the transformative power of the EU in semi-authoritarian settings and call into question the effectiveness of sectoral governance in fostering meaningful Europeanisation under conditions of geopolitical interdependence.
