Serbia’s EU integration process has only commenced after the political change in 2000. The cornerstone of the relations between the country and the EU is the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which mandates the full alignment of State aid measures with the EU standards. Since 2006, subsequent governments have been working on aligning the substantive rules for the granting of State aid with the (ever-changing) EU framework, with a growing number of State aid measures and schemes being notified to and approved by the Commission for State Aid Control (CSAC). However, this period was also characterised by a severe economic crisis. By examining the legal framework, institutional structure for State aid control and overall experiences of the first phase of the implementation of the Law on State aid, this paper draws conclusions on the major challenges and obstacles encountered introducing the new regulatory regime in the context of a deep economic crisis, on-going enlargement fatigue and conflicting political legacies.
Keywords: Serbia; Institutional Transformation; EU Conditionality; Enlargement Fatigue.