Serbijos politinių partijų euroskepticizmo naratyvų analizė prieš ir po Rusijos invazijos į Ukrainą /

Since early 2000 Serbia is an official candidate for EU membership. At the same time the country is one of the most Eurosceptic states in the entire Western Balkans region, however, it still expresses aspiration to join the organization. Serbian political parties rely on a balancing foreign policy, when at the same time they support two parties carrying conflicting values - the EU and Russia. In 2022 February 24 the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war highlighted the problematic foreign policy of the Serbian state. During this ongoing crisis, the country has to withstand pressure from its Eastern and Western partners, who are pushing Serbia to choose its side. Having in mind the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war and EU put pressure on Serbia, it remains unclear how this crisis can affect Eurosceptic tendencies in state, that is already highly Eurosceptic. It also emphasizes the importance of researching euroscepticism and crisis connection. Consequently, the aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to analyse the narratives of Serbian political parties about EU as an actor and Serbia’s membership in the EU. Also, this research seeks to determine whether and how the Eurosceptic narratives of Serbian parties changed after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war crisis. The object of this bachelor’s thesis is Serbian political parties Euroscepticism narratives in the period from 2020 to 2024 February 24. In order to achieve the set goal of the work, several tasks were carried out. Firstly, in the theoretical part, the methods of determining partisan Euroscepticism were clarified, with the help of which the analytical basis for the research was created. The relationship between crises and Euroscepticism was also defined, which showed how the impact of crises can affect narratives about the EU. After that, relying on the qualitative content analysis method, an analysis of the Serbian political party's Euroscepticism narratives on economy, politics and culture was carried out. The analysis of the research was made in two periods: the period before and after the war started. Then, the obtained results were compared and their differences were identified, at the same time, the conditions that affected the intensification of these narratives were recognized. This bachelor’s thesis showed that after the beginning and continuation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbian political parties intensified their Eurosceptic narratives and changed their substance. The content of all the identified narratives has expanded, problematizing different actions of the EU. The opposition parties compared to the ruling parties expressed a harsher attitude towards the organization, even proposing Serbia to refuse EU membership. It was noticed that Serbian political parties often used Eurosceptic narratives to rationalize the non-acceptance of Russian policy and justify the non-recognition of Kosovo even in the ongoing war context. Overall, the pressure received from the west, which seeks to harmonize Serbia's foreign policy regarding Russia, was the main reason that has caused greater dissatisfaction in terms of the EU and Serbia membership prospects. Lastly, this study contributes to the relationship between Euroscepticism and non-direct EU crises, which has not been widely explored in the literature. The analysis outcome which revealed that Serbian parties have not reduced, but rather increased their Eurosceptic foreign policy tendencies in the context of this ongoing war, shows a deeper problem for the EU integration prospects of Serbia which will only get more complicated over the years. However, the conclusions of this work cannot be generalized to all countries, as Serbia is an exceptional country in the EU due to its balanced foreign policy. To get a more complete picture, further studies could examine the cases of other countries seeking EU member status and maintaining close relations with Russia and the EU in the face of this war.

Grantor dc:publisher

Institutional Repository of Vilnius University

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Jenciūtė, Mantė,

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

lit

Repository record dc:identifier

https://repository.vu.lt/VU:ELABAETD210580960&prefLang=en_US

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vu.lt:elaba:210580960