Balkanization of Europe: Competing Representations of Europe in the Collective Memory of the Western Balkans

With the Western Balkan journey of returning to Europe being in its third decade, this paper deconstructs a web of various (often-competing) representations of Europe in the discourses of the Western Balkan. On a more holistic level, the paper studies how the periphery contributes to the construction of Europe by outlining the representation of Europe in the collective memories of the Western Balkan countries. On a more specific level, the paper studies the link between the broader representations of Europe entrenched in the national memories of the Western Balkans and the more recent  policies on Europe including the question of EU integration.

The article makes three principle claims. First, rather than embedded in the EU’s institutional order, Europe is a discursively established frame. Second, the Europeanization process in the Western Balkans should not be restrained to the context of EU accession. Rather, it is defined by the countries' historical ties to Europe. Third, the article establishes more nuanced discursive representations of Europe. Whereas the question “are we European” undeniably stands central to the identity of the Western Balkan countries, the analysis reveals the region’s ambiguous relationship with Europe, which is simultaneously defined as central to national identity, but also as the opposing “Other”.

The paper juxtaposes the construction of Europe in domestic discourses of Croatia and Serbia since the 19^th century onwards. The bumpiness of Serbia’s accession negotiations (in comparison to Croatia) is consequently analyzed through Serbia’s ambiguous reading of Europe as well as the insecurity in its own Europeanness.