Crisis in Serbia Between the EU’s Normative (In)Capability and Norm Entrepreneurs

Petrović Miloš (Institut za međunarodnu politiku i privredu), milos.petrovic@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

The author analyzes the response of European Union institutions to the socio-political crisis in Serbia (2024–2025) in the context of normative power, as well as the key actors and motives involved. The research examines how the European Union, as a normative power, influences the establishment of the rule of law in Serbia in the context of protests as a manifestation of a deeper political crisis. The author poses a question whether EU institutions primarily reinforce their normative engagement through discourse rather than through concrete actions aimed at strengthening the rule of law in Serbia. Is there a difference between various forms of the EU’s normative role and a discrepancy among the institutions in that regard? An additional aim is to explore the role of actors such as the student movement, the academic community, and the National Convention on the European Union in the context of normative entrepreneurship and norm diffusion. Methodologically, the study combines content analysis of key documents – such as the European Parliament’s resolution on Serbia (May 2025) and the European Commission’s rule-of-law report (July 2025) – with discourse analysis of the European Parliament’s September plenary debate. The author finds that the positions of these institutions indicate growing EU dissatisfaction with the state of democracy, and particularly the rule of law, and that the previous declarative and selective commitment to European integration can no longer be regarded as sufficient proof of dedication to the European path. The paper concludes that the protests in Serbia, as a manifestation of a broader socio-political crisis, together with the aforementioned non-state actors, act as a corrective mechanism for the EU’s normative power, exposing the gap between the normatively oriented narrative and its faulty implementation. The crisis also highlights the Union’s questionable capacity to apply conditionality mechanisms more consistently, with the European Parliament showing greater normative consistency than the European Commission, alongside certain indications of stronger normative engagement, primarily through a sharpening of the narrative.

Keywords: EU normative power, rule of law, protests in Serbia, European integration, academic community, National Convention.