The EU and the disintegration of Yugoslavia

Résumé du document

In order to better understand the disintegration of Yugoslavia at the beginning of the 1990s, it is interesting to recall that Yugoslavia was first created in 1918, and was dismembered firstly during World War Second. Then, it has been dismembered once more with the collapse of the USSR at the end of the 1980s, causing the above-mentioned disintegration. Moreover, between its creation in 1918 and its final disintegration, the Yugoslavian State has been confronted to highly different regional, religious and ethnic composition, which provoked the issues of the fragility and the legitimacy of it, creating instability and great hostility from some people such as Goebbels during the interwar period, who said that Yugoslavia was "a questionable patchwork of states".

Extraits

[...] In this context, we can ask ourselves about the action of the EU during the disintegration of Yugoslavia? Has the EU been efficient in its response and reaction, before and during the different wars? And what about after? To answer these questions, we will first examine the situation on the brink of the civil war in Yugoslavia, in this country but also in the member states of the EU. Then, we will study the EU actions during the Yugoslavian war, stressing on the fact that its attempts had been mostly unsuccessful. [...]

[...] But obviously, because of its internal divisions principally (on December 1991, Germany reaffirmed its difference with France and Britain at a meeting of EC foreign ministers at Brussels, by announcing that it would formally recognize Croatian and Slovenian independence), its reactions hadn't been very efficient. To give an illustration of this ineffectiveness, we can just recall that over a dozen EC negotiated cease-fire agreements collapsed in rapid succession during Croatian war, and that the small number of EC cease-fire monitors stationed in the region was unable to control the spreading violence. So, what have been the EU reaction and response to the war in Yugoslavia? [...]

[...] So, the European Community clearly turned out to be unable to prevent the war and the violent disintegration in Yugoslavia. On the contrary, according to some specialists, signals from the EC and the USA encouraging Yugoslavia's unity and discouraging Slovenia's and Croatian's secessions in June 1991 might have actually “encouraged the Yugoslav federal government and the JNA to employ force against the two republics”. II/ The EU between idleness and unsuccessful attempts in Yugoslavia Case Studies: Slovenia and Croatia, two very different situations As we have seen previously, Slovenia and Croatia decided to secede from the Yugoslav Federation in June This decision opened a completely new phase in the Yugoslav crisis, but there is to underline the disparity of the situation in these two countries, as well as the difference of success of the European Community reaction. [...]

[...] Then, in January 1992, these observers were transferred in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The main issue was that their mission was not clearly defined: the only sure fact was that they don't have to intervene on the battle field. But apart from this, there was no coherent policy or even the beginning of a common strategy. So, on the field, some men and women acted themselves, without the EU directives. They were for instance members of humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, MSF, and Equilibre. [...]

[...] This was a time when mechanisms for conflict management hadn't been established yet to deal with such a crisis. Nevertheless, concerning Slovenia, we have to emphasize the successful attempt of the EU to negotiate a general cease-fire agreement the Brioni Declaration which provided for a three-month moratorium on further moves toward independence by Croatia and Slovenia and for EU-sponsored negotiations among the republics regarding their future. This three-month moratorium ended on October after that both republics had reaffirmed their intention to leave the Yugoslav federation. [...]