Eu as a Good (enough) Governance Exporter in Kosovo? Local Views on the Aborted Kosovo E Re Power Plant Project

Abstract

This study focuses on the EU's perceived role in Kosovo as a good governance exporter through political conditionality. Local debates on the EU's stance towards the recently aborted coal power plant project (Kosovo e Re) reflect a disappointment with the EU's failure to prioritise good governance reforms that have not been implemented sufficiently in Kosovo. The study mainly benefits from interviews conducted in Pristina in 2019 in order to explore various EU, domestic and international factors hindering the EU's capability as a good governance exporter. Following the EU's limited transformative agency in contested states, it concludes that the EU is perceived by local actors in Kosovo as a "good enough governance" exporter that favours stability in the region and transatlantic partnership at the expense of good governance reforms. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.