In June 2014, Sarajevo welcomed the opening of the commemorations of the WWI all over Europe. Mainly funded by the European Union, this one week event was the result of long-term negotiations between representatives of the European Union institutions, the city of Sarajevo and member states. This paper focuses on the commemoration of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by the serb anarchist Gavrilo Princip that questioned the borders of historical representations at different levels: local, national and European. It shows how this attempt to promote a shared memory of the war actually reified ancient and present borders in the Balkans. Using the tools offered by political sociology, this paper is based on fieldwork combining the collection of officials documents, semi-formal interviews and ethnographic observation. It explores how the borders of old empires influences the construction of a European memory and the relation between the EU and its periphery.
