One step forward, two steps back – Conceptualising Serbia‟s EU accession in Serbian and EU discourse. In: Andreas Musolff, Fiona MacArthur and Giulio Pagani (eds.) (2014). Metaphor and Intercultural Communication. London: Bloomsbury Linguistics, 185-200. Nadeţda Silaški and Tatjana urović 1 Abstract: In this paper we focus on one particular way Serbia‟s EU accession is conceptualised in Serbian and EU discourse, that by the JOURNEY metaphor scenario, particularly dealing with two specific expressions, step and traffic light, as used by Serbian and EU politicians. The comparison of the two data collections (national and institutional) shows that while these two groups use identical expressions, the discourses in which these expressions are used seem to be slanted so as to fit the respective communicative and political purposes of the discourse communities. This in turn means that, despite the intercultural character of the step and traffic light metaphors, these same metaphors are used for utterly different “argumentative and ideological purposes” (Musolff, 2004, 2010), which in case of Serbian discourse frequently results in misunderstanding by Serbian citizens, the fuelling of Euroscepticism and a negative sentiment towards the EU, at times backfiring on the original intentions of the metaphor users. Key words: STEP and TRAFFIC LIGHT metaphors, national discourse, institutional discourse, EU accession, Serbian, English. 1. Introduction Being a highly complex political structure markedly different from the concept of state as defined by international law, the European Union (EU) still seems to be literally and figuratively unfathomable not only to people who live within its boundaries but even more so to those outside its overall framework, thus still being experienced as un objet politique non-identifié. 2 Conceiving of the perplexing European space along with eager pursuit of a number of countries geographically belonging to Europe but politically and economically outside the European Union boundaries to approach the new space, is evidenced in discourse which, in both cognitive and linguistic terms, serves as a vehicle for conveying the concepts which should be understood by the general public. Many studies which research EU discourse both inside and outside the EU (e.g. Musolff, 2000, 2004, 2006; Zbierska- Sawala, 2004; Silaški et al., 2009; Šarić, 2005; Šarić et al., 2010, etc.) convincingly show that highly abstract processes of joining and integration with the EU are effectuated by the linkages between language, cognition and reality, while metaphors, comprehended in Lakovian tradition (Lakoff et al., 1980), become the most pervasive cognitive and linguistic devices for shaping and communicating conceptualisations of the given reality. In other words, a host of metaphors documented in the above studies are created and deployed with the aim of making the issue of the European political 1 The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable and insightful comments which helped to improve the quality of this paper substantially. 2 The expression is credited to Jacques Delors, one of the former Presidents of the European Commission (see Chaban et al., 2009).