Conflict-sensitive approaches to the crises in Kosovo/Serbia and Libya

Second Crisis Response Policy Forum

The purpose of this seminar is to present and discuss the findings of two papers produced in the EUNPACK project.

The first paper maps the development of the EU’s crisis management throughout the various stages of the Kosovo-Serbia crisis. It offers useful explanations of how the approach stabilised both on the level of local arrangements (e.g. the Mitrovica bridge regime) and on the level of EU-based instruments, such as the EEAS-based dialogue format on ‘normalisation’ of relations or funding for various aid programmes. In light of recent instances of destabilisation in Kosovo and the wider Western Balkans region, the question is how resilient the EU’s crisis response mechanisms are.

The second paper explores how the EU has reacted so far to the protracted and continuously evolving security crisis in Libya. The focus here is on both the input and output level, i.e. the EU decision-making processes on policy objectives and the adoption of strategies to move the needle in the conflict. As such, this case study examines the interactions between the European Neighbourhood Policy and EU crisis management.

The aim of the discussion is to tease out lessons and best practices of the EU’s supposedly ‘comprehensive approach’ to conflict and crisis mechanisms.