Abstract The article discusses the projection of European Union (EU) power under conditions of contested statehood in its near abroad. Using the EU's mission in Kosovo (EULEX) as a case study, the article unpacks the various levers of external EU influence and explores the conditions under which European policy-makers become entangled in the existential discourse of highly polarized societies with competing statehood claims. The contestation of these claims (both domestically and internationally) produces significant challenges for EU actorness, affecting both self-ascribed (internal to the EU) and external (amongst the EU's interlocutors) aspects of EU presence, which, in turn, shapes the EU's ability to deploy and co-ordinate its capabilities on the ground. It is by reference to this presence–capabilities nexus that this article seeks to conceptualize the limitations of the planning and early deployment of EULEX in Kosovo.