ABSTRACT
Observing the uses of economic sanctions is one way to analyse the links between external economic relations and foreign policy.1 Actors and commentators have for some time deplored the gap between the European economic strength and its political weakness. The series of sanctions imposed against Serbia from 1998 to 1999 is one attempt of the EU to fill this gap and to transform its economic size and weight into a real and effective foreign policy. It was not the first example of EU sanctions (De Wilde d’Estmael 1998; Nuttall 1992), but it was the first time that EU sanctions were taken autonomously. In other words, these sanctions were unique because they were not simply adopted out of UN Security Council resolutions.
