A year later

The flags of the Countries that recognized Kosovo’s independence are hoisted in front of the town council of Prizren and of other cities in Kosovo along with the flag of the new state. However, despite these symbols, a year since the unilateral proclamation of independence by Albania’s authorities of Pristina, past February 17, the future of the youngest state of Europe is still shrouded in darkness. To date, 54 Countries have recognized Kosovo, including the United States and almost all EU countries except Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Greece and Cyprus. This divide has prevented the EU from playing a clear role in the solution to the last Balkan dilemma. Without overlooking the opposition of Russia that has always sided with Belgrade. Hope and disillusion. Belgrade and Pristine’s diplomatic struggle with Serbia, that asked the International Court of Justice to issue a ruling on the legitimacy of the proclaimed independence, has been ongoing for the past year. This political clash has become a diplomatic paralysis with severe repercussions over the life of the population who, regardless of their ethnicity, share the economic crisis of a Country where unemployment ranges between 40 and 60 percent. Furthermore, the lack of dialogue risks fuelling tensions especially in Serb-majority areas of Northern Kosovo, which in the past months witnessed several episodes of tension. In this region, where the Serbs represent 5.3% of the over two million Kosovan citizens, Pristine’s authority is not recognized and its institutions are sabotaged. However, there are reasons for hope in other areas, marked by inter-ethnic coexistence: different scenarios whose roots are to be found in the memories of the dramatic war period.Diplomacy at work. Dialogue is the only path leading to the solution of the serious problems that still prevent the development of this corner of the Balkans: from missed enterprise privatization to trade (Serbia is one of Kosovo’s main business partners), from the protection of Serbia’s monasteries to the return of the refugees, from the fight against criminality to the participation of all ethnic groups in the institutions’ activities, not to mention economic and infrastructure development. Lamberto Zannier, head of Kosovo’s International Administration (Unmik), has been encouraging the partners to jointly discuss these issues, but with little feedback. On numerous occasions Serbia declared it will accept negotiations that regard only the question of the status, while the Albanian authorities are willing to sit around a table provided there be a situation of equality: with a dialogue between two sovereign states: two irreconcilable positions. These difficulties, along with Kosovo’s slow recognition process, triggered the disillusion of the Albanian majority who still fail to see the long-awaited signs of independence perhaps too often considered the panacea for all ills. “ Kosovo’s population – Msgr. Dode Gjergji, Apostolic Administrator of Prizen told SIR Europe correspondent Michele Luppi – is torn between the yearning to erect its own State and the desperation over the delays and difficulties of this process as relates to functionality and to the lack of clarity regarding Eulex’s responsibilities, while many Countries fail to grant their recognition”. Striving to adapt to the radically changed environment, in the past months Unmik undertook a recovery plan that included staff-cuts and jurisdiction transferal of justice, police, customs and other sectors to the Eulex mission, the largest mission ever deployed by the European Security and Defense Policy. European perspective. Europe’s ever-greater involvement, with the definitive inclusion of all the Balkans in the EU appears the only solution that can put an end to the problematic issue. However this won’t be possible until a joint solution to is found to the question of Kosovo. On the other hand, the two Countries still need to make a series of steps. Belgrade already signed the Association and Stabilization Agreement Treaty, paving its way towards the EU, but its endorsement was bound to cooperation with the International Criminal Court for Ex-Yugoslavia. While Kosovo still needs to reach the required standards in a number of areas in order to prove it is a Constitutional State. These targets still appear to be very far away. These two paths could be jointly followed by receiving the plea of Msgr. Dode Gjergji, who repeatedly invited Albanians to contain celebrations in order to prevent unwanted reactions: “we can’t return to the past, we ought to work together, Serbians and Albanians, for Kosovo’s future. There is no other alternative to joint EU membership”.