In less than two months, the west deployed concentrated diplomatic fire that succeeded in bringing the most complex and enduring conflict in the Western Balkans to its final stages, in order to bring the two sides in the Kosovo conflict to an agreed solution
Regardless of how much they were controlled by their organisers, the series of incidents in Kosovo last December carried the potential of a wider conflict and led to writing about the threat of another war on the borders of the European Union.
Now, at the end of January, such predictions fail to hold water. Belgrade and Priština are on the verge of accepting a European plan that offers – with the strong support of the United States – a platform for the normalisation of relations after at least two decades of conflict that have obstructed the European accession prospects of Serbia and Kosovo and imperilled the Western Balkans.
The plan envisages, in short, that Serbia will stop blocking Kosovo’s entry into international organisations, including the United Nations, and that Kosovo will give up on its request for mutual recognition and, after a decade-long delay, fulfil its obligation to form the Community of Serb Municipalities in the north of Kosovo, which was included in the Brussels agreement.
Since Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence in 2008, Belgrade has refused to acknowledge it and conducts its foreign and domestic policy in line with the slogan “Kosovo is Serbia”. That could now come to a historic turnaround.
Serbia has a chance to free itself of the heavy burden of Kosovo, to devote itself more decisively to the west, as its long proclaimed geostrategic commitment, and to distance itself from the influence of Russia, which has been using Kosovo as a key lever to expand its influence over Serbia
Aleksandar Vučić, as the leader of the political stratum opposing the granting of a seat in the UN for Kosovo, said after meeting with the West’s diplomatic quintet that Serbia is ready to consider the concept of the European plan.
President Vučić is defending his implied agreement to de facto accept the independence of Kosovo, without the obligation of establishing diplomatic relations, by noting the possible ramifications of his failure to do so. If Serbia rejects the tabled solution, it could face the freezing of its European integration process and the halting and withdrawal of investments, representing comprehensive measures on the political and economic fronts that would prove extremely damaging to the country.
“There is no progress if we do not cooperate… We would be economically and politically lost,” said Vučić in seeking support to accept the agreement from the very public that has been taught to declare the independence of this “holy Serbian land” a national treason.
The road to sobriety of thought won’t be easy. “It will be difficult,” admits Vučić, “that’s why I’m scared”. It will also be difficult for a country that has been taught for decades to believe that Serbia has no life without Kosovo, but Serbia has a chance to free itself of the heavy burden of Kosovo, to devote itself more decisively to the West, as its long-proclaimed geostrategic commitment, and to distance itself from the influence of Russia, which has been using Kosovo as a key lever to expand its influence over Serbia and which, even during the current war in Ukraine, is not abandoning its intentions to destabilise the Western Balkans.
Foto: Fonet
