>From a shiptar source, for what it is worth.
============================================================================ ===================================== Kosovo is betrayed: Brussels fails, Belgrade laughs By Spartan Galica Wednesday, 12 November 2008 Image <http://www.newkosovareport.com/images/stories/kosovabetrayel1.jpg> Kosovo is betrayed Witnessing the European Union’s seemingly star-crossed EULEX mission take shape over the past few weeks has been not unlike observing a train wreck: it’s awful and ghastly, but locked in horrified awe you cannot look away. It’s a wreck entirely of the EU’s own making, owing to their squeamishness and most unseemly habit of obsessive diplomatic hand wringing. EULEX was meant to be a judicial and police mission to supervise Kosovo’s independence, as per the Ahtisaari Plan. Naturally, there are logistical matters to work out, arranging for accommodations, transport, matters of immunity and the like. This has proven to be an exhausting process. In its infinite wisdom, the European Union only arrives at most any decision by consensus, meaning every member state must agree on the course of action. While this is an ingenious criterion to ensure that hardly anything ever gets done within the EU, it is hurting Kosovo badly because five member states still refuse to recognize Kosovo and scuttled any coherent Europe-wide strategy. The European Union is somewhat infamous for its pedantic attention to detail on the most minute, mundane aspects of daily life. There is a directive of several pages on the proper way to make a cup of tea, for example. Given this record, one would think that administering a new country’s legal affairs and supervising its government would be a matter to which a great deal of attention would be given. In a very roundabout way, this has been somewhat true. The EC has been engaged in intense negotiations with Serbia about EULEX’s mission in Kosovo. >From the beginning, Serbia has played the European Union for a fool. It sowed many seeds of discord among its member states in the lead-up to Kosovo’s declaration of independence, whispering their worst fears into the ears of gullible and craven ministers about the precedent it sets for their own countries. This was especially appealing to Romania, Slovakia, Cyprus and Spain, each with its own significant populations of minorities who would perhaps not mind independence or more autonomy, take your pick. This trick was also repeated around in capitals around the world. What the Serbs did not mention was that there had been a long internal struggle against the Kosovar Albanians. They can perhaps be excused for this slight lapse in memory. In countries without secessionist movements, the Serbs said that Kosovo was a giant American plot and that world governments should not give recognition because it frustrate American ambitions, and wouldn’t that be cathartic? The European Commission, which is usually fairly firm on establishing consensus when it really wants to, immediately folded and left it up to the member states to decide on recognition. Like many large centralized administrations, the European Union bureaucracy that sits in Brussels has the power of the purse to punish non-conforming members. It can impose sanctions on constituent states, as it did with Austria in 2000. There was not even a murmur of imposing discipline on its members over Kosovo. Naturally, if this had been a matter of preventing national parliaments from allowing popular votes on the European Constitu….err, excuse me, “Reform Treaty,” it would have been an entirely different matter. Several EU states have lobbied for the recognition of Kosovo, such as the United Kingdom and Germany. Others, particularly Spain, have lobbied against it. By allowing disunity to continue and being weak-willed, the EU has allowed Serbia to run circles around it. With its ally Russia holding down the fort at the UN Security Council, Serbia has gotten its way on most everything and the EU has nothing to show for its admittedly paltry efforts except its increasingly noticeable internal divisions. This brings us to the most blatant European misstep so far. Member states are negotiating with Serbia to ensure there’s no trouble for EULEX when (if) it is implemented. In particular, for Serbia’s gracious cooperation in the Serb-dominated north of the Republic of Kosovo, which Belgrade apparently operates via some sort of remote control. Instead of talking to the Kosovar government, which exercises sovereignty over the area de jure if not de facto, it is only serving Serbia’s interests and flattering its asinine nationalist pretensions. Essentially, the Europeans are willing to concede to all of Serbia’s demands created by its anti-European nationalistic leader Kostunica in return for being allowed to perform a mission in a place that Serbia no longer controls. It is as though the United States conducted serious negotiations with Canada to allow a skyscraper to be built in downtown Seattle so that the local Canadians wouldn’t cause trouble. It’s patently ridiculous. Serbian parallel institutions in Kosovo’s north are unlawfully present and should be ignored, at the least, and ideally dismantled. The Europeans instead want to treat with them and play nicey-nice. They’ve been forced to play this rather tedious and futile game because their own members can’t speak with one voice on an issue with significant implications for their common future. The Kosovars are quite clear that they want their new state to remain indivisible. The Europeans seem prepared to bargain away the Kosovars’ land to appease those who caused them so much grief in the late 1990s. Are their memories so short? The European approach of consensus, keeping everybody happy, will not work in this instance and should never have been applied to Kosovo. It is leading to Faustian bargains struck in backrooms. We have one rather small country sitting back with an undeserved smirk of satisfaction while its supposedly morally superior and astute negotiating partners bicker because Madrid or Moscow will never approve of a certain condition. In sum, the European Union walked rather blindly into a very cynical trap laid for it by Serbia and Russia. Playing to the fears of its member states about an unacceptable precedent, secessionist minorities and, when that didn’t work, plain old anti-Americanism, Belgrade has divided the European Union’s 27 member-bloc into a mess somewhat reminiscent of Lord of the Flies. Tightly bound by their own stubborn pride and fear, a minority of EU members has ensured that nothing will go smoothly. Russia will veto any approval for a mission in Kosovo unless it suits Serbia’s vanity. The Kosovars, all too familiar with the poor reputation of Serbian nationalism in the twentieth century, will refuse anything that debases their internal law and order and will uphold their constitution. In striving so hard to make a deal with the devil, the EU may be unwittingly selling its own soul in the fine print. http://www.newkosovareport.com/200811111390/Views-and-Analysis/Kosovo-is-bet rayed-Brussels-fails-Belgrade-laughs.html
