The hope is that bringing growth and prosperity to the area will help secure stability in the war-torn Western Balkans, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn explained. Stressing that Kosovo is "a profoundly European matter," he pledged that the EU was "ready to use all instruments to help Kosovo realise its European perspective".
The Commission refrained from giving any concrete figures before the upcoming conference, but indicated it could allocate a further 200 million euro for "specific socio-economic needs" linked to Kosovo's new independent status. This would come on top of the €395.1 million already earmarked for the 2007-2011 period as part of the pre-accession assistance framework.
Since 1999, when a NATO air campaign brought an end to the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists and the UN took over the administration of the then Serbian province, Brussels has provided Kosovo with some 1.8 billion euro.
Addressing ambassadors in Pristina yesterday (10 June), Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi said he had "full faith that the Donor Conference will be a joint success," allowing Kosovo to advance towards its "final destination" of EU and NATO membership.
Thaçi expressed his confidence that all accession conditions would be met as early as 2010, a date immediately dismissed by EU officials as "dreaming".
"Kosovo could become a member of EU by 2010 only by miracle, but miracles do not happen often in EU," Shenol Muharemi, the former head of Kosovo's Office for European Integration, told local media.
Speaking at a seminar in Brussels organised by the German Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, Kosovar Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni refrained from mentioning a potential accession date, but shared his prime minister's optimism regarding the donors' conference.
He stressed that the build-up of a solid economy and infrastructure will be "key" to Kosovo's future.
A leading representative of the Serbian minority in Kosovo, Oliver Ivanović, who also attended the Brussels seminar, however expressed doubts that donors would stick to their promises and warned Kosovo's government not to expect too much.
The conference takes place five months after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia (EurActiv 18/02/08), which thus far has been recognised by 20 out of the 27 EU member states, and is still heavily opposed by Serbia's closest ally Russia.
