Julian Bergmann and Arne Niemann claim that ‘neo-functional peace’ was insufficiently
conceptualised and empirically unsubstantiated. They draw on the original neo-functionalist literature to propose a logic of spill-over to explain the European Union’s external policies. We argue that our original article is not damaged by this critique and its explanation of the EU’s approach in the Serbia-Kosovo case stands. We accept the need for further work, based on analysis of different examples and sectors, which can clarify the conceptual boundaries of neo-functional peace and test it against other cases.