"After proclaiming independence, a State remains to be built. The task that awaits the government will certainly not be easy. Nowadays Kosovo looks like an empty container held together by the ethnical factor only". This is the comment of Mauro Ungaro, director of the weekly magazine of the diocese of Gorizia (Italy), an expert in Balkan politics, about the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, which was ratified yesterday by Pristina’s Parliament. Today, two meetings have been planned to discuss this issue: one in Brussels, where the EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs will meet, and one at the United Nations, for an adjournment of the Security Council which met last night at Russia’s request. According to Ungaro, "the immediate risk is to have a State that, to live its daily life, will have to heavily and solely rely on international aids: the 1999 war destroyed virtually all the industrial settlements that existed in the country, leading to the abandonment of the mining areas in the south and to a deep crisis in the farming industry. The average income recalls the expert is no more than 250 euros a month, the GDP, according to the World Bank, is the lowest in Europe, unemployment reaches 60%, while the promised privatisations remain dead letter: exports account for only 5% of imports". (continued)
