Thursday, March 09, 2006

EU says Serbia can't rule Kosovo again

Serbia should admit that it cannot rule Kosovo again, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said while speaking about enlargement in Athens on Thursday (9 March), Balkans agency DTT-NET.COM writes.

He stated that Brussels expects "realism that there can be no return for Kosovo to Belgrade's rule, and there must be willingness to ensure a sustainable settlement that creates a stable, democratic and multiethnic Kosovo in the European framework."

The commissioner added that the ethnic Albanian leadership of Kosovo must reach out to the Serbian ethnic minority as a matter of urgency.

"[Kosovo's] status can only come with standards, especially as regards minority protection and decentralisation measures, the implementation of which must be urgently intensified," he stated.

"The implementation of EU standards now and not in some unspecified future - it should be the first priority of the new government of Kosovo."

Belgrade wants to freeze Kosovo status
Mr Rehn's words on Serbian rule are unlikely to get a favourable reception in Belgrade, which last month proposed to the UN that the issue of Kosovo's final status should be frozen for 20 years.

The commissioner's comment is in line with statements by senior UK diplomat John Sawers in February that Kosovo should be independent.

Kosovo legally belongs to Serbia but has been under UN administration since the EU and the US intervened to stop ethnic clashes in the region in 1999.

Pristina and Belgrade are currently in UN and EU-sponsored negotiations on the possibility of Kosovan independence, with the next round of talks tabled for 17 March.

Ethnic Albanians, pushing for independence, make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million-strong population.

Tension surrounding the talks rose last week after Pristina nominated a former guerrilla general indicted for war crimes by Belgrade, Agim Ceku, to be prime minister.

Belgrade asked the UN to block the appointment but the Serbian request was rejected by the international community despite quiet concerns in Brussels about the fragility of the Kosovo peace process.

Kosovo as universal precedent
The prospect of Kosovan independence could also have repercussions for other separatist states in the EU and its neighbours.

Serbian contacts told British conservative MEP Charles Tannock in February that if Kosovo becomes independent, the ethnic-Serb enclave of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina will also call for independence.

Meanwhile, Russia is pushing the idea that the Kosovo solution should set a universal precedent for handling Northern Cyprus and breakaway Moldovan republic Transniestria, as well as Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh in South Caucasus.

"What's so unique about Kosovo?" Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizov said in an interview with EUobserver on Thursday.

"There are similarities in the international community accepting or rejecting the self-determination of an unrecognised character, unrecognised entities. It's not only Abkhazia and South Ossetia but also North Cyprus."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Serbia,

Please listen to reason. Please let us all join a Europe that will be free in movement like old Yugoslavia was and free in ideas like life should be.

Let the Kosovars (all of them) take their own path, not because Serbia has a say, but because it is hurting you to dwel on ideas long buried.

With peace and love,
Dardania

Anonymous said...

Dear Serbia,

Kosova will gladly let those serbs not be part of our country, but in that case you have to do the same with the land that Albanians own in S. Serbia - I am sure they do NOT want to be part of your so called state.

With Peace and Love,
Kosovar

Anonymous said...

Serbijanac

Your logic clearly seems twisted. It is the same logic that led your nation to wage war and now doesn't let you cleanse your soul and consciousness from the blood and murder committed by your kins. The mentality of dominating another nation with the idea of false birth or false historic right is outdated. Your arguments do not stand and the recent history of the Balkan wars initiated and lost by your nation simply prove that violence doesn't work anymore in these parts of the world.

A fence -- and then good fences make good neighbors. That, hopefully, works.

Anonymous said...

"European idealism that existed before."

...? I'm glad you refered to Kosova as a "former Yugoslavian state". The reason why Balkans it will take forever to join the EU is because Serbia is blockading the process. Serbias asspiration to use its military power and imperialistic ideas where Bosnia,Croatia,Kosova, etc become its little colonies will never happen---thats obscure. Wake up smell the corruption Mir. Serbia has always used terror to get things done, it does NOT know any better, that's why serbia opens big bases near minorities to discrimate them...and throws bombs in Vojvodina (or is that just the people?)

Anonymous said...

Mir,
Are you sure you'r not Albanian?

Anonymous said...

Thats right, let us all make it a stronger union by joining!!

Peace to the Balkans!

Darko Petrovic

P.S. To Dardania 2006, we have talked before in this forum, and i like the way you discuss the regions issues in a peaceful manner here, all the best, Darko.