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Friday, December 05, 2008

KOSOVO - SERBIA

EU decides to send mission to Kosovo

Saturday, December 15, 2007

EU leaders declared after a one-day summit that there was a need to move towards a Kosovo settlement. Serbian PM Kostunica said the recognition of Kosovo's independence would be "the most dangerous precedent since World War Two.

BRUSSELS, (Reuters) - European Union leaders agreed
on Friday to send administrators and police to Kosovo ahead of
its expected secession from Serbia, which branded the mission an
attempt to create a "puppet state" on its soil.
 
In a bid to soothe Balkan tensions over Kosovo's push for
independence, they offered Serbia a fast-track route to EU entry
once it met conditions for signing a first-step accord on ties.
 
But Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the offer
was an insult and said recognition of Kosovo's independence
would be "the most dangerous precedent since World War Two.
 
"It is especially insulting to offer a crippled Serbia the
reward of fast-track to the EU in exchange for its consent to
violence," Kostunica said in a statement released in Belgrade.
 
EU leaders declared after a one-day summit that negotiations
on Kosovo's future were exhausted, the status quo was untenable
and there was a need to move towards a Kosovo settlement. They
stopped short of endorsing independence.
 
"We took a political decision to send an ESDP mission to
Kosovo. This is the clearest signal the EU could possibly give
that Europe intends to lead on Kosovo and the future of the
region," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, the summit
chairman, told a news conference.
 
ESDP is the European Security and Defence Policy. The
1,800-strong mission involves police, justice officials and
civilian administrators.
 
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the decision would
be implemented after EU foreign ministers next meet on Jan. 28,
the clearest indication of when the force could start to deploy.
 
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters there was a
general understanding that Kosovo's independence was inevitable.
 

 
"ON A PLANE"?
 
But diplomats said Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Romania all
object to recognising Kosovo's sovereignty without a U.N.
Security Council resolution.
 
"I want to make clear we are not supporting the declaration
of Kosovo's independence. Any agreement on Kosovo must be done
with the blessing of the Serbs," Cypriot President Tassos
Papadopoulos told reporters, acknowledging it still made sense
to begin preparations for the EU police mission.
 
A day after signing a treaty to end a long institutional
stalemate, EU leaders switched focus to challenges posed by the
Balkans -- a test of the EU's hopes of strengthening its foreign
policy clout -- and by globalisation and immigration.
 
On Serbia's bid to join the 27-nation bloc, the final summit
communique said: "(The European Council) reiterated its
confidence that progress on the road towards the EU, including
candidate status, can be accelerated."
 
The signing of an SAA with Belgrade has been held up by its
failure to transfer Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic to
a U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague on genocide charges.
 
Outgoing chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte urged
EU leaders in Belgium's Le Soir not to be lenient on Belgrade
and maintain firm pressure on it to deliver indictees.
 
"I am stupefied by the attitude of France, Germany and Italy
who want to soften their position. As decisions must be taken by
unanimity, I am counting on Belgium and the Netherlands to
remain tough," she told the newspaper.
 
Sarkozy replied angrily that France was a firm backer of the
U.N. tribunal but Serbia should not be isolated in Europe.
 
"Let us not confuse the search for war criminals or suspects
and the possibility of a country such as Serbia joining the EU
one day," he said. "If that is all Mrs Del Ponte is stupified
about than frankly she is doing okay."
 
Signing the agreement requires unanimity in the EU and Dutch
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told reporters: "I want Mladic
on a plane to the Hague before I will sign the SAA."
 
Separately, EU leaders named former Spanish Prime Minister
Felipe Gonzalez to head a new "reflection group" to discuss the
long-term future of the EU on issues ranging from enlargement to
climate change and regional stability, diplomats said.
 
Latvian ex-President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and the chairman
of mobile phone company Nokia Jorma Ollila were named as two
vice-chairs of the panel due to report in June 2010, they said.
[1] réaction :

  • Friday, December 14, 2007

    Hostages or prosperity?

    By  citadin

    Noone can force 2,5 million Albanians to live under the same roof with Serbs. Noone can force Serbia to willingly get rid of it's "Jerusalem". So, is there a common ground? The only solution lies in immedaiate aid for Serbia and raise of it's economic power to the level it used to have before a decade of sanctions, ghettoization and destruction in 1999. Only economicaly stable Serbia will be a guarantee of prosperity and peace in the entire southeastern Europe. Untill then, cityzens of Serbia will be still held in a ghetto, feeling as if they are hostages of Mladic and few stubborn politicians, both from Serbia and EU, isolated, frustrated and poor. Continuation of this type of EU-punishment policy, fostered with humiliating socio-political atmosphere will keep on producing feer and agression as the only response. Do we all need that?

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