Kosovo and Serbia
Deployment days
Dec 30th 2008 | BELGRADE AND PRISTINA
>From The Economist print edition
The row over Kosovo’s independence may be dwarfed by economic concerns
FOR months the European Union’s biggest civilian mission, known as EULEX,
was in limbo. Planned to consist of 1,900 policemen, judges and others, it
was due to replace the United Nations after Kosovo declared independence
from Serbia last February. Yet it was blocked because Serbia, which controls
small Serb enclaves plus a chunk of northern Kosovo, declared it illegal;
and the EU did not want its writ to run only in Kosovo’s Albanian areas.
Yet early last month the EULEX mission at last deployed across the whole
country. Serbia’s government is desperate to get closer to the EU. But so
long as it obstructed EULEX, the EU could block Serbia’s road to Brussels.
In the event, the deployment of EULEX went without a hitch. Some UN police
switched over seamlessly to EULEX; hundreds more arrived. Indeed, after such
a tense build-up, the start of the mission turned out to be a huge
anti-climax. Serbia’s government got some of what it wanted, notably UN
endorsement of the mission; Kosovo got EULEX deployed in Serb areas. In this
way both sides can indulge in political fantasy: Serbia pretends that Kosovo
is not independent and Kosovo’s government pretends to be sovereign over the
whole country.
Since then Serbs and Kosovars have continued to needle each other. In early
December Serbia (and Bosnia) banned goods coming from Kosovo, because their
documents were presented with Republic of Kosovo not UN Kosovo stamps.
Kosovo is retaliating by banning the import of Serbian and Bosnian goods
from January 1st. Serbian police have just arrested ten ex-members of the
wartime Kosovo Liberation Army who were in an Albanian-populated area of
Serbia, accusing them of murders and kidnappings of Serbs and others just
after the 1999 war.
Such actions are designed to make Serbian and Albanian politicians seem
tough. Yet what many in both countries have not grasped is that dealing with
the fall-out from Kosovo’s independence is no longer their biggest problem.
The full force of the global financial crisis is now engulfing the Balkans.
Arguing about whether Serbian biscuits can be imported into Kosovo or
minuscule quantities of fruit juice can go from Kosovo to Bosnia will soon
appear trivial and quaint.
Kosovo suffers from huge unemployment. Many families rely on remittances
from relations abroad. According to Shpend Ahmeti, head of Kosovo’s
Institute for Advanced Studies, some €400m ($560m), or 15-20% of Kosovo’s
GDP, comes from money sent home every year. But the forecast is gloomy.
Kosovars abroad often work in businesses hit hardest by recession, such as
carmaking and construction.
In Serbia the gloom has been obscured because the government has just struck
a controversial deal to sell a majority stake in its oil industry for a
modest €400m to Russia’s Gazprom. In exchange Serbia has received a
political commitment that part of Gazprom’s South Stream gas pipeline, from
the Black Sea to Italy, will run through Serbia. But there is no disguising
the harsher reality. Serbia’s biggest exporter, US Steel, which employs
6,000, has been dealt a huge blow by collapsing steel prices and has cut
production sharply. It is only the most prominent victim so far.
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12868172
