A UN-sponsored plan under which the EU's police and justice mission in Kosovo would extend its reach into Serb-dominated northern Kosovo in return for as yet undisclosed concessions could lead the de facto ‘soft partition' of Kosovo permanent, a leading voice on Kosovo in the European Parliament has warned.
Joost Lagendijk, a Dutch member of the Green group in the European Parliament who is currently drafting a report on Kosovo, said that he was all in favour of “constructive ambiguity” – the use of terminology that can be interpreted in slightly different ways by different sides – to facilitate progress in Kosovo, whose self-declared independence is rejected by its ethnic-Serb minority. However, Lagendijk told European Voice that he feared that the UN plan could make permanent the current political and administrative divisions in Kosovo. To prevent that, Lagendijk said, the European Parliament should be prepared to use its powers over the EU budget, from which Eulex is funded, if the EU mission began to apply two sets of law in Kosovo or to follow two separate chains of command.
Eulex is not yet fully operational and currently has no presence in northern Kosovo.
A reconfiguration still not figured out
The UN's proposed ‘reconfiguration' of the international presence in Kosovo, which the UN's secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, presented to the Kosovar and Serbian governments on 10 November, has prompted a public outcry in Kosovo. There has also been some violence directed at the EU, with an explosion reported on 14 November at office of the EU's special representative in Kosovo, Peter Feith. The perpetrators and motive of the attack remain unknown, but the incident, which injured no one, is an indication of the pressures that the EU faces.
The plan has been rejected out of hand by Kosovo's president, Fatmir Sejdiu, who immediately – on 10 November – said it amounted to an “unacceptable” violation of Kosovo's sovereignty. He and Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi have shown no sign of relenting in the days since.
Kosovo's opposition to the proposal on 11 November prompted the UN Security Council to postpone indefinitely a debate about Ban's proposal. The Security Council is required to sign off on such a deal.
The text of the six-point plan has not been made public. Within Kosovo, local media have reported that the plan would hand control of the police, customs and justice systems to ethnic Serbs in areas where they form a majority,
However, EU diplomats have disputed this account. “The intention is to have Eulex deployed throughout Kosovo, including in the [majority Serb] north, and under an EU chain of command,” a diplomat said.
The prospects for a compromise remain unclear. Speaking on 11 November, Ban called on the Kosovar government to keep a sense of “reality” and observers in Prishtina, Kosovo's capital, have suggested that the government may yet cave in to the reality of concerted international pressure. A Security Council session could be scheduled promptly after that.
Influences at work
The fear voiced by Lagendijk – that separate legal codes or chains of command could emerge – has some precedent in the UN's administration of Kosovo. A recently re-opened court in the northern, Serb part of the divided town of Mitrovica, which also includes international judges provided by the UN, currently applies laws passed by Kosovo's UN administration rather than Kosovo's parliament. Some observers suggest this is a reasonable compromise in the circumstance and makes little practical difference since UN and Kosovo law barely differ.
The uncertainties about the system of international supervision that could emerge in Kosovo are fuelled in part by the complex nature of Eulex's relationship with the UN and by the veto power over UN decisions held by Russia, Serbia's key partner. Serbia, which had opposed the possibility of the EU assuming responsibilities held by the UN, eventually agreed earlier this year to co-operate with Eulex, but on condition that it be ‘status-neutral' – in other words, that it should take no position on whether Kosovo should be a state. That has made it necessary for Eulex to seek some form of handover from the UN, which administered Kosovo for nine years following the war in 1999.
Lagendijk said that it was in the Serbs' interest to have Eulex operate in the north since Eulex would investigate cases that the Kosovar authorities have shied away from because of their sensitive nature. This especially concerns property issues, organised crime and war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs.
Diplomats stressed that the Eulex deployment would unfold independently of any decisions taken at the UN and that the mission's mandate was not in question. They acknowledged, however, that a deployment to the north against Serb wishes would not be realistic.
Hundreds of police officers and judges will pour into Kosovo in the coming weeks to bring Eulex from currently 630 international staff to 1,500 – still shy of its proposed full complement of 1,900 – by early December, they say.
Eulex is due to become fully operational in December. It was originally due to be fully up and running in June, but the rollout was delayed by Serbian and Russian questions about the legal basis for its deployment.
