Post by tripwire on Jan 5, 2008 17:54:40 GMT -5
EU prepares ground to decide Kosovo fate
By Paul Taylor ReutersPublished: January 4, 2008
BRUSSELS: Brick by brick, the European Union appears to be building up its own legitimacy to determine Kosovo's final status if Russia blocks agreement on the breakaway Serbian province at the United Nations.
In a series of statements, the EU's Portuguese presidency and its foreign policy and enlargement chiefs have declared that Kosovo is a European question, that its future lies in the EU and that the Europeans will have to manage the outcome.
"Kosovo's status is fundamentally a European issue," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters in an interview this month. "We trust that other parties such the United States and Russia will avoid unilateral actions."
Kosovo's two million ethnic Albanians are demanding independence, while Serbia has offered broad autonomy.
EU officials insist their preferred option is a negotiated solution between the Belgrade government and Kosovo's Albanian leaders, backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution.
The province has been in legal limbo under U.N. rule since NATO waged an air war in 1999 to force a Serbian withdrawal.
A troika of international mediators led by German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger is trying to broker a deal by Dec. 10.
But the chances of a consensual outcome are slim and the EU is preparing for a situation in which there is no deal and the Security Council remains deadlocked.
Moscow's threat to veto any resolution granting Kosovo independence without Serbia's consent, and Washington's pledge to recognise a unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo Albanians puts the Europeans on the spot.
"I cannot conceive that we could have at the end a situation where there is a strong position of Russia, a strong position of the United States, and where Europe simply does not exist," Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said on Sept. 8.
"This is a European territory. It's not in Asia or Latin America," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
EU officials note that Brussels has paid for the last 8 years of limbo, European troops already make up the bulk of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the EU is due to take over supervision and running the police from the United Nations.
The EU would also bear the brunt of managing a potential wider Balkan crisis if Kosovo erupts into violence, they say.
But diplomats and analysts say there are legal, political and practical problems with trying to make the EU an alternative source of legitimacy for Kosovo's final status.
The legal issue is the precedent of recognising a state's independence without the backing of the U.N. Security Council, the acknowledged authority in the international community.
Moscow has warned that could become a model for breakaway areas of Georgia and Moldova or for the Armenian-occupied territory of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan.
NATO launched its air campaign against the former Yugoslavia in 1999 without U.N. blessing because of Russian opposition, but founding a state without such authority poses longer-term legal headaches than waging a military operation for a few weeks.
"While people acknowledge that this is what NATO did in 1999, stomachs would be a little too weak at this moment for the EU to do the same thing," a European military source said.
Kosovo could not become a member of the United Nations without the consent of Russia or Serbia, nor access sorely needed credit from international financial institutions.
The political problem is that EU member states do not yet agree on recognising Kosovo's sovereignty.
Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, Cyprus and to a lesser extent Spain, all have reservations about such a move because of ethnic minorities or separatist movements at home.
EU officials say the mood at a two-day brainstorming session of the bloc's foreign ministers in Portugal this month was one of determination to put European unity above national qualms. But that does not guarantee agreement in December.
Practical problems include how to maintain the NATO force and get an EU administrative and police presence into place without a Security Council resolution, and how to prevent the northern part of Kosovo, populated by ethnic Serbs, seceding.
The European military source said the Europeans would likely need some sort of U.N. cover, possibly a permissive statement by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to take over on the ground.
He said NATO lawyers were arguing that the existing U.N. resolution 1244 on Kosovo provides sufficient legitimacy to keep the so-called KFOR in place in the event of a unilateral declaration of independence.
Kool, now we can kick out Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, Cyprus troops or if not in Kosova, never let them in if they ask.
By Paul Taylor ReutersPublished: January 4, 2008
BRUSSELS: Brick by brick, the European Union appears to be building up its own legitimacy to determine Kosovo's final status if Russia blocks agreement on the breakaway Serbian province at the United Nations.
In a series of statements, the EU's Portuguese presidency and its foreign policy and enlargement chiefs have declared that Kosovo is a European question, that its future lies in the EU and that the Europeans will have to manage the outcome.
"Kosovo's status is fundamentally a European issue," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters in an interview this month. "We trust that other parties such the United States and Russia will avoid unilateral actions."
Kosovo's two million ethnic Albanians are demanding independence, while Serbia has offered broad autonomy.
EU officials insist their preferred option is a negotiated solution between the Belgrade government and Kosovo's Albanian leaders, backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution.
The province has been in legal limbo under U.N. rule since NATO waged an air war in 1999 to force a Serbian withdrawal.
A troika of international mediators led by German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger is trying to broker a deal by Dec. 10.
But the chances of a consensual outcome are slim and the EU is preparing for a situation in which there is no deal and the Security Council remains deadlocked.
Moscow's threat to veto any resolution granting Kosovo independence without Serbia's consent, and Washington's pledge to recognise a unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo Albanians puts the Europeans on the spot.
"I cannot conceive that we could have at the end a situation where there is a strong position of Russia, a strong position of the United States, and where Europe simply does not exist," Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said on Sept. 8.
"This is a European territory. It's not in Asia or Latin America," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
EU officials note that Brussels has paid for the last 8 years of limbo, European troops already make up the bulk of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the EU is due to take over supervision and running the police from the United Nations.
The EU would also bear the brunt of managing a potential wider Balkan crisis if Kosovo erupts into violence, they say.
But diplomats and analysts say there are legal, political and practical problems with trying to make the EU an alternative source of legitimacy for Kosovo's final status.
The legal issue is the precedent of recognising a state's independence without the backing of the U.N. Security Council, the acknowledged authority in the international community.
Moscow has warned that could become a model for breakaway areas of Georgia and Moldova or for the Armenian-occupied territory of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan.
NATO launched its air campaign against the former Yugoslavia in 1999 without U.N. blessing because of Russian opposition, but founding a state without such authority poses longer-term legal headaches than waging a military operation for a few weeks.
"While people acknowledge that this is what NATO did in 1999, stomachs would be a little too weak at this moment for the EU to do the same thing," a European military source said.
Kosovo could not become a member of the United Nations without the consent of Russia or Serbia, nor access sorely needed credit from international financial institutions.
The political problem is that EU member states do not yet agree on recognising Kosovo's sovereignty.
Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, Cyprus and to a lesser extent Spain, all have reservations about such a move because of ethnic minorities or separatist movements at home.
EU officials say the mood at a two-day brainstorming session of the bloc's foreign ministers in Portugal this month was one of determination to put European unity above national qualms. But that does not guarantee agreement in December.
Practical problems include how to maintain the NATO force and get an EU administrative and police presence into place without a Security Council resolution, and how to prevent the northern part of Kosovo, populated by ethnic Serbs, seceding.
The European military source said the Europeans would likely need some sort of U.N. cover, possibly a permissive statement by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to take over on the ground.
He said NATO lawyers were arguing that the existing U.N. resolution 1244 on Kosovo provides sufficient legitimacy to keep the so-called KFOR in place in the event of a unilateral declaration of independence.
Kool, now we can kick out Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, Cyprus troops or if not in Kosova, never let them in if they ask.