Western Balkans project launched while region ‘on the brink’

The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), an initiative launched in February to promote regional cooperation in the Western Balkans, is hanging in the balance as the region hovers between resolving the conflicts it has inherited or a prolonged period of stagnation, according to RCC Secretary General Hido Biscevic.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Friedrich Ebert foundation, Biscevic stressed: “It’s make or break time.” 

The new structure, which is a regionally-owned successor to the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, is taking shape at a difficult moment, he emphasised, pointing to indications that the Balkans are again becoming a playground for “strategic players”. 

The Stability Pact, which was launched in 1999 at the EU’s initiative, aimed to stabilise the region and enhance conflict prevention by bringing the participants’ political strategies in line with one another and coordinating new initiatives in the region. When the Commission decided that the Stability Pact had achieved its objectives and could be phased out, the countries of the region decided to establish a successor to the Pact to continue promoting regional cooperation – the Regional Cooperation Council, based in Sarajevo. 

The Stability Pact, which will finish its work in June 2008, handed over its mandate to the RCC on 27 February 2008 and the new structure is now becoming operational. But fresh difficulties in the region following Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia mean that there is still a major role to play for the international community. 

Speaking at the conference, the special coordinator of the Stability Pact, Erhard Busek, said that decisions concerning Kosovo were made too late, which was “a mistake”. 

However, he also pointed out that the problems concerning Kosovo are limited to Pristina and Belgrade. On the other hand, he believes that Bosnia and Herzegovina could create a bigger problem, because stakeholders still need to be convinced of building a common state. 

Busek nevertheless pointed out that the Stability Pact had succeeded where other players had not – notably in bringing all regional actors to the same table, including Belgade and Pristina. This was made possible thanks to the “Kosovo/United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)” legal platform, he explained, stressing that the reference to UN Security Council Resolution 1244 has thus far preserved regional cooperation. UNMIK and the international KFOR forces have been in Kosovo since 1999 under Resolution 1244. 

He called the fact that Serbia and Kosovo sit together in the regional framework, even though they will not agree to do this in a bilateral context, a “lovely but extremely important irrationality”. Busek also called for bolder EU initiatives for the region. “We need visa freedom, not visa facilitation,” he stated. 

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