Sep 16th 2010, 14:21 by T.J. LONDON
VETON SURROI is the best foreign minister Kosovo never had. He may yet get the job. The former editor of Koha Ditore, a newspaper, he now fills his time overseeing Kosovo’s Foreign Policy Club, a think tank-cum-discussion forum. Last night he gave a talk at Chatham House in London on the future of Kosovo and the wider region. When Mr Surroi speaks, Balkan-watchers listen.
In the wake of July’s opinion by the International Court of Justice that Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence was not illegal, Mr Surroi noted that Serbia was now attempting to change tack. The Serbian leadership had said that the point of going to the ICJ was to make the issue a legal, rather than a political, one. Having been thwarted by the ICJ's decision it was now trying to move the issue back to the political realm.
Yet the ICJ's opinion had nonetheless been a watershed. Mr Surroi said he now saw the beginning of a ten-year process leading to Kosovo's integration—an incorporation of Serbian areas into the Kosovo body politic in one form or another, and the integration of the region as a whole into the EU.
Yet there are outstanding problems. First, five EU member-states still do not recognise Kosovo. Second, while the EU is now gearing up to facilitate talks between Serbia and Kosovo, the two are not on an equal footing. Serbia has a contractual relationship with the EU and is slowly advancing towards membership, but Kosovo is the subject of a soft protectorate, “and that is not good for producing dialogue”.
Kosovo and Serbia want different things. Kosovo wants to talk about its Serbian-inhabited north and the EU’s role in the region, where Serbia is preventing the effective deployment of EULEX, its police and justice mission. But Serbia wants to talk about Kosovo’s status. So, says Mr Surroi, talks about talks may be necessary first. “What would be the formula to putting both sides on an equal footing?”
The picture above illustrates one of the problems Mr Surroi is speaking about. It is an official sign from north Mitrovica, a Kosovar town divided between Serbs and Albanians. Serbs call the town Kosovska Mitrovica, but the sign shows who is boss here: the Republic of Serbia.
The electoral calendar may present further difficulties. Kosovo will hold elections, probably in a year, and Serbia must hold a presidential elections by the spring of 2012. With this in mind, says Mr Surroi, speed is of the essence. He points out that polls show that Kosovo’s most popular politician is Albin Kurti, who opposes talks with Serbia.
So there are plenty of reasons for gloom. But, last night Mr Surroi was surprisingly upbeat. The result of the ICJ opinion, he said, could be a burst of positive energy. “We need to see Kosovo and Serbia as EU members in ten years,” he said. If that became a tangible possibility then both sides would have an “incitement” to try to settle their differences. That in turn could create momentum towards tackling what he described as the far worse situation in politically frozen Bosnia and Hercegovina. Amen.
the economist, eastern approaches
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