Splitting Kosovo
|
|
|
|
Tribunes
|
|
Written by Franck Biancheri
|
12.03.2007: The “Balkanic Road to the EU” starts by splitting Kosovo in two regions of Serbia and Albania
The Balkanic question is not anymore an UN issue but only an EU question
 For the EU it is now time to get out of the emergency solutions defined at the end of 90s early 2000s. Not only for Kosovo of course but also for Bosnia Herzegovina.
Let’s start with this article to look more closely at the Kosovo question; and to look at it with a European perspective, and a European perspective only. It means that Washington, Moscow and Ankara are welcome to help sorting things out, but that they are not anymore part of the core policy making process. The Balkans (including Kosovo) are from now on essentially an EU question : indeed those people do not try to join the USA, to get into Russia or to become part of Turkey, they want to join the EU. Therefore the EU must put on the table its choices for the region and start implementing them.
Looking at it from a Newropeans perspective, the picture is crystal-clear : Balkan countries (Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia) are the only ones which could hope for an EU accession in the coming 20 years. As Newropeans underlines the fact that future enlargement issues will be decided only by public opinions (through direct referenda or indirectly via national referenda or elections), one does not need to be a talented forecaster to assess that enlargements extending current EU borders will be opposed by 70% to 80% of EU voters. So let’s not loose time discussing about enlargements which will not happen (like for Turkey or Ukraine), and let’s rather focus upon enlargements which may happen because they do not represent an extension of the EU, but rather the resorbtion of a “black hole” in its flank : I mean by the that, the Balkans.
The Balkanic question has a rendez-vous with European history on June 28th, 2014
As voters have become, since the French and Dutch “No” to the EU constitution project, the new decision making power within the EU, one has to look at the enlargement issue under a very simple angle : how can it be “sold” to the 500 millions EU citizens?
If the answer is “it can’t be” (as for Turkey or Ukraine), then, responsible politicians should rapidly act to prepare alternative routes.
If the answer is “it can be” (as for the Balkans), then, the same EU leaders, if they think that it should too, have to rapidly define strategic plans to achieve it.
For the first case, we get on the one hand the “Neighbourhood policy” (for Ukraine), and on the other hand the “strategic partnership” (for Turkey).
For the second case, we have to set up a “Balkanic Road to Accession” (BRA) of which we have the chance to already know the date of the main deadline, and the place where to organize the ceremony to mark it : 28 th June 2014 in Sarajevo [2] … 100 th anniversary of the start of the European civil wars century, in the very city where the disaster was triggered.
By the way, this symbolic anniversary provides us also with the best ever argument to “sell” to public opinions the accession of Balkans countries to the EU. Meanwhile, most European Union citizens are also aware of other facts which help supporting the case for this accession :
• it does not push EU limits forward, but rather suppress a “black hole” on the EU flank
• the population concerned is very small, only 25 million citizens in total (half the population added by the last enlargement of Romania and Bulgaria).
• to keep those Balkanic countries out of the EU will generate more costs and instability (as it already does) than taking them in, as at least, positive, constructive forces will be given a clear set of objectives with the BRA.
So much for the “why”. Let’s move to the “how”.
Four pre-conditions to successfully build the Balkanic Road to Accession (BRA)
Therefore only two strategic questions are left :
1 . what should we be concretely celebrating on June 28th 2014? Accession of the whole group of countries concerned, start of accession negotiations of the whole group, a mixed of the two situations. I think that a mixed of both could be a very good target, knowing that if evolutions are very rapid, then it may be full accession of all; but otherwise it may be a double process, looking alike the last two waves of accessions made in 2004 and 2007 (but prepared simultaneously).
2. which main blocking factors should we get rid from as fast as possible to prevent the BRA to get stuck for years? There are two main concrete ones, which of course reflects several complex regional ethnical issues, but have the great advantage to be politically simple to push forward for the EU : forget about Dayton and all the UN/US/EU/Russia measures mostly taken for considerations of international politics; let’s focus on policies which will serve Balkanic countries accession to the EU and define the preconditions for success.
The preconditions are of four kinds :
• no new state (the end of Balkanisation of the Balkans)
• no divided state accepted (no Cyprus again)
• no attempt to artificially preserve mutlietchnicity (stop flooding the area with subventions, ngos and soldiers to pretend that multiethnicity does work when it obviously don’t).
• it is up to the Balkanic people to work things out; together with the EU (no more UN and international community involvement, no more hordes of experts and ngos).
The EU cannot effectively integrate countries and people which do not know who they are. Therefore these four preconditions have to be clearly put on the table by the EU from now on, with the very strong argument that they are part of the “communication package” which may help win popular support to the future accession of these countries.
And following today’s news, most probably at the core of the Balkanic question (as much as Bosnia-Herzegovina) here comes Kosovo of course. The EU policy on this issue has been till now a complete mistake as it was not an “EU” policy, but an EU attempt to make a policy serving at the same time the different local ‘little chiefs’ short term objectives plus the international community vested interests: the classical recipe which leads nowhere but never ending troubles.
Kosovo has to be divided in two regions, respectively integrated to Serbia and Albania
Concretely, it means that Serbia will not keep the whole of Kosovo, that Kosovo will not become an independent state and that Albania will have to confront the fact of adding a new region to its territory.
Indeed, in order to prevent the creation of another new state while addressing the question of ethic homogeneity, Kosovo will be split in two : its northern third will stay as part of Serbian territory; the rest will become the newly created Kosovo region of the Republic of Albania. All countries of the region will anyhow enact EU laws regarding the protection of cultural minorities, as everywhere around there are smaller ethnic minorities. The EU will focus its funds and support to possible relocation of some populations deciding to change regions following the split of Kosovo.
Yes, I did use the expression ‘relocation of population’! Too bad for the political correctness which prevails in international negotiations for many years and which essentially embodies an amazing hypocrisy; but it is simply out of question to let a new Albanese speaking predominantly Muslim state [3] to be created on the borders of an existing Albanese speaking predominantly Muslim state : Albania. The 20 th century in Europe has been a century of population relocation and border changes which has allowed the EU to exist today. The only region which stayed out of this process has precisely been the ex-Yugoslavia and it is time to proceed peacefully to this pre-condition of successful EU integration. We have learned to move peacefully large group of population when we build large river dams. The challenge is no more different.
Rather than flooding the region with money to support troops and international ngos, and to fund local ‘chiefs’, let’s invest the money more adequately by giving it to people willing to swap houses and lands in order to allow long term sustainability of regional ethnic equilibrium (meanwhile of course the whole EU integration at making frontiers less and less divisive). And on top of the swap, the EU will give 20.000 Euros per individuals accepting to make the move by 2012 (with a decreasing amount as years pass by, in order to motivate fast decisions) : both sides will be affected and therefore no group is benefiting of any preferential treatment. Meanwhile the discussion on the new borders within Kosovo will keep diplomats and local politicians very busy. Of course it will have a human costs, but not in terms of killings and deaths as the current situation will provide once again if the course of things is not drastically changed.
As painful as it may be, it is in EU interest and in the Balkanic countries and populations interest to move forward in that direction as rapidly as possible. If Washington, Moscow or Ankara are not happy with this decision, then it is there own problem as in the end the question is accession to the EU : not to the USA, Russia or Turkey. Meanwhile, before doing anything else than supporting the EU policy in that region, they should first show that they can efficiently solve their own similar troubles in the Middle East, in Caucasus or in Cyprus and Kurdistan. For the rest, I have no doubt that the Europeans of today (including the Balkan countries citizens) will do their job.
[1] For more details, you may read this BBC article.
[2] The day the archiduke François-Ferdinand, heir to Austro-Hungarian Empire thrown, was assassinated in Sarajevo, triggering World War I.
[3] Muslim, Christian, or else, the same policy should be applied throughout the region : no new states bordering existing states with similar ethnic and religious population. Such groups should be organized as regions within the existing states.
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 August 2009 )
|
|
|
Image de la semaine |
Non ce n'est pas une affiche de campagne en Turquie, mais bien celle du parti socialiste autrichien (SPÖ) pour les élections d'octobre prochain à Vienne. Après les affiches de campagne de Strache qui plaide pour le " pur sang viennois" c'est la course au populisme?
Wien-Wahl: Politiker sprechen türkisch: 200.000 Neoösterreicher Wähler haben Migrationshintergrund. Die Parteien buhlen um ihre Stimmen - gerne auch in einer Fremdsprache.( Kurier 25/08/2010)
section: Portofolio
|
|
NewropMag Blog Press Review |
|
mod_dbrss2 AJAX RSS Reader poweredbysimplepie
|
|
Cartoon of the week |
(click on the image to enlarge)
|
|
Focus |
|
La deuxième rencontre du cycle
“LA DEMOCRATIE EN DANGER”,
consacrée à la Justice en Europe
Le lundi 13 septembre
de 19h30 à 22h00
Salons de l’Aveyron
17 Rue de l'Aubrac
75012 Paris
 A l’heure où les discours et les mesures sécuritaires et judiciaires se durcissent dans nombreux pays européens, où l’on sait les atteintes aux droits les plus élémentaires et aux principes fondamentaux des simples citoyens, quels traitements sont réservés à ceux qui tiennent les pouvoirs politiques, financiers, économiques entre leurs mains? Une conférence-débat organisée dans le cadre du cycle La démocratie en danger par Les Amis de Beppe Grillo à Paris et le NewropMag.
Intervenants: les députés européens Luigi De Magistris, Sonia Alfano et Rosario Crocetta ; Harald Greib, vice-président de Newropeans en charge des affaires des institutions européennes ; Eric Alt, magistrat, membre de l’association MEDEL (magistrats européens pour la démocratie et les libertés) et de l’association Anticor, et Corinne Lepage, députée européenne et ex Ministre de l’environnement, engagée dans la lutte contre la corruption politique et financière.
Parmi les sujets de discussion:
- L'infiltration des organisations criminelles et le vide législatif relatif en Europe
- Les récentes dépénalisations des crimes financiers et économiques en Italie, en France et leur traitement au sein des institutions européennes
- Présomption d'innocence ou de culpabilité? L'exemple de la “loi bâillon” sur les écoutes téléphoniques qui viole les recommandations de l’OSCE concernant l’emploi de sources et de matériels nécessaires aux investigations journalistiques au service de la démocratie.
Contacts:
Micaela Bracciaferri, Coordinatrice “Les Amis de Beppe Grillo à Paris »
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Marianne Ranke-Cormier, Rédactrice en chef du NewropMag
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Entrée libre sur pré-inscription auprès de
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
|
|
Podcast: "La France en 2020" - France Inter "Le Téléphone sonne" |
|
|
|
Newsletter |
|
Keep yourself updated with our FREE newsletters now!
|
|
Le 22 juillet dernier, Franck Biancheri, Directeur des études de 
