Serbs reject EU police mission to Kosovo

A plan approved by European leaders to send a civilian mission to Kosovo in order to stabilise tensions in the area went down like a lead balloon, with Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica accusing the EU of trying to create a puppet state on Serbian soil.

While EU heads of state and government stopped short of backing any unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, they agreed, in principle, to sending the largest ever civilian crisis management mission to the province, at an end-of-year summit on 14 December. 

The 1,800-strong policing mission, which will also include judges and administrators, is likely to be deployed in February, when Kosovo is believed to be set to announce its secession from Serbia. 

Speaking after the summit, EU leaders made it clear that, while there will be no collective EU recognition of Kosovo’s independence, most of the bloc’s 27 governments, including France, the UK, Germany and Italy, were likely to extend their recognition rapidly. 

“Kosovo independence is inevitable […] The Kosovans and the Serbs no longer want to live together,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a briefing after the summit, justifying the EU mission launch as an attempt to ensure that “Europe does not explode”. 

Striving to win Serbian backing for the plan, EU leaders also adopted a statement urging Belgrade to give high priority to meeting conditions for membership so that “progress on the road towards the EU, including candidate status, can be accelerated”. 

Up till now, the accession momentum has been slowed due to lack of progress on tracking down and arresting former war criminals, including Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander wanted on genocide charges. 

But Sarkozy underlined the importance of not “condemning Serbia to isolation”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel added: “We want to find a reasonable solution but we also want to signal to Serbia that we need a stable Serbia”. 

However, Belgrade – which is strictly opposed to the independence of Kosovo – said it rejected any trade-off between the two issues. “Serbia will never trade Kosovo for speedier accession to the EU and these things are not negotiable,” said Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica added: “It is especially insulting to offer to a crippled Serbia a reward of a fast-track to the EU in exchange for its consent to violence.” 

The country further warned that it would view the EU mission as illegal unless it obtains a valid UN Security Council mandate, which is completely implausible, due to Russia’s backing of Serbia’s position and its ability to veto decisions in the Security Council. 

EU member Cyprus has backed Russia’s call for continued Serbia-Kosovo talks, for fear that diplomatic recognition of Kosovo would serve to legitimise the separatist Turkish regime that has controlled the northern part of Cyprus since 1974. Spain, with its own regional separatist movements, and Romania have also expressed concerns about the implications of a unilateral declaration by Kosovo. 

However, a joint statement by EU leaders stresses that the negotiating process “has been exhausted” and underlines the EU’s “conviction that resolving the pending status of Kosovo constitutes a sui generis case that does not set any precedent”. 

Read more with Euractiv

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