EU must take the lead on Kosovo, say MEPs

According to a new report, 2005 will be a make or
break year for Kosovo, and MEPs agree that the EU
should enforce its intervention there. The issue will be
discussed by EU officials and visiting US President Bush in
February.

Kosovo may be heading for renewed violence and “even renewed
war” if there is no clear progress on plans to
hold talks on the “final status” of the breakaway province later in
2005, warns a fresh report by the International Crisis Group. Under
UN administration since 1999, the Serbian province of Kosovo’s
status is scheduled to be decided at UN-sponsored talks that are
due to be launched this year. The ICG report, entitled ‘Kosovo:
Toward final status’, calls on all sides involved to
“immediately start working to establish Kosovo as an independent
state that can guarantee minority rights”.

Meanwhile, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who
visited Pristina and Belgrade earlier this week, said
that he and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana aim to “have the
Western Balkans and especially the question of Kosovo also on the
agenda” of US President George Bush’s scheduled February talks in
Brussels. Analysts, however, point out that on the issue the
EU must take the lead, since Europe is bound to be exposed to all
the consequences of possible failure.

“Standards and status should go hand in hand,” said MEPs at a
European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Kosovo on
26 January, arguing that it was impossible to aim to build up a
state in Kosovo without knowing what kind of state was being
built. 

The MEPs argued that the EU should hold out the
prospect of “entry into the European orbit in whatever form” to
Kosovo as an “exit strategy” to ward off the nationalist
agenda. According to French Professor Jacques Rupnik, only
“conditional independence” was realistic for Kosovo, under which
all political forces would renounce violence and all attempts to
review the borders, and would provide guarantees to the 6% Serbian
minority.

The EPP-ED Group believes that Kosovo and the Balkans amount to
“litmus tests” for the success of the EU’s foreign policy.

The province’s majority ethnic Albanians demand independence,
while the Serbs would like Kosovo to return to Belgrade’s
control. 

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