MARTINS de SOUZA.

Diego Vinícius Pereira(2010); “Kosovo-or the Apple of European

Discord”; 2 Pags.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague has confirmed the independence of Kosovo
yesterday, July 22 2010. The ICJ has declared that there was “no applicable prohibition” of a
declaration of a sovereign territory like that made by Kosovo in 2008, according to the leading court
president, Hisashi Owada, Kosovo “did not violate general international law either the resolution
1.244 of 1999 of Security Council”. The decision was hailed as a vindication in Pristina, but in
Belgrade, capital of Serbia, it was rejected. The Serbian President, Boris Tadic, has affirmed that
Serbia shall “never” recognize the independence of that territory, that Serbia regards as its Southern
province.

Such reactions were already predictable: the history of this Balkan territory of 2 million people has
been full of century-lasting tensions between Serbians and Albanians. Belgrade lost its control over
Kosovo in 1999, when a NATO air campaign drove a rampaging Serbian army out of Kosovo. The
riots for independence of ethnic-Albanian majority was responded with a campaign of ethnic
cleaning by the Serbian government. After the extinction of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in
the same year led by the NATO intervention, Kosovo became a protectorate of first U.N. And
NATO, and then E.U.

But, the point that should be target of more attention is the reaction of the European countries to ICJ
decision. The situation of Kosovo unveils differences within the E.U. According to Swiss
newspaper Le Temps, 5 of 27 members of E.U haven't recognized the independence. “Certainly,
Kosovo will remain for decades a thorn in the Eastern flank of Europe” and according to the
newspaper “the countries that need their territorial integration-as Spain and Cypre-will continue
not recognizing the new State”.

Until now,69 countries have recognized Kosovo as a State, including the U.S, that has always
supported the claims for independence of the country since the 1998-199 war. So, the U.S has
reacted to by arguing Europe to “unite”. Soon before the verdict, the U.S vice President Joe Biden
had a calling to Serbian President and guaranteed that Washington has a “unwavering commitment
to Kosovo's sovereignty and territorial integrity”. The holdouts that include Russia, China and
India have their own motivation to make so. Those motivations are based on the fact that such
decision can boost other regions to declare their independence. “It seemed clean that the 1990's
Germany reunification was against the tide of the modern history, making a kind of last struggle for
the ancient model of the XIX century”, has assessed one article of the British newspaper the
Guardian. And it explains that “the separatists, secessionists from Taiwan, Xinjiang, from Somalia
to Sri-Lanka and even from Georgia” will for sure see that verdict of ICJ as one “jurisprudence” for
their own causes. But, it is also a challenge to Russian foreign politics, since it has been a traditional
allied of Belgrade, and it has reaffirmed that will remain against the recognization, but it is shared
because the precedent created by Kosovo in 2008 allowed Moscow to recognize the independence
of Southern Ossetia , after the war with Georgia. Although, Russia can be under the pressure of the
situation in Tchetchenia.

In order to come to an end over this issue, the European Foreign Ministers are expected to meet in
Brussels on July 26. In such reunion, they will search a way to come to a common response to the
ruling, but they are also expected to find a new dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, both of whom
are seeking E.U membership. And the membership of Serbia can be used by E.U to convince Serbia
to halt its stance toward the newly-born state. In early July, the European Parliament, guided by
members such as U.K , France, Germany and the Netherlands, has adopted a resolution, with 445
votes to 150, ordering that the five remaining E.U members to recognize Kosovo's independence.
Of them, Spain, Romania and Slovakia refused to recognize Kosovo as a free state because of their
fears about their own minority populations, while Cyprus and Greece have a sense of Slavic
kinship.

According to the Brussels newspaper WAZ.eurobserver, the E.U members and its central
institutions, including the office of Catherine Ashton, high representative of the Union for foreign
affairs and of security politics, fear that the new discussions over the status of Kosovo in the Union
can complicate even more one European common foreign politic, that is one the most important
goals of the 2009 Lisbon's agreement.

Božidar Đelić, The Serbian vice premier minister in charge to the European integration has
indirectly confirmed that there is a true danger about the admission of Serbia in E.U, that was sent
to evaluation in 2009. He also declared that it isn't likely that the Ministers Council will allow that
admission to go to the European Commission in September 2010.

Vladimir Todorić, director of juridic Forum, says if the verdict of ICJ can make Belgrade to build
over a vote of the resolution of U.N General Assembly, “but it is unknown which maneuver those
steps can be made by Serbia in one position against the countries members of the Union that have
already recognized the Kosovo's independence”

There is also another dilemma to be solved the Union's states; the Northern Kosovo's Serbian
community. This region above the Ibar River and the town of Mitrovica is contiguous with Serbia,
and remains out the hands of the effective control from Pristina, with quite limited access even to
E.U. There is one proposal to swap this territory for the Presevo Valley, one region with majority
Albanian population in the southern Serbia, that is contiguous with Kosovo.

However, the more plausible solution to the problem would be to give “special status” for
Mitrovica, says Gerard Galluci, the former U.N regional representative in Mitrovica, quoted in the
Times. According to him, such “status” would be given to Mitrovica North and its surrounding Serb
enclave, allowing both Pristina and Belgrade to continue claiming sovereignty. “It may only freeze
the Kosovo situation and not resolve it. But it might be the only way to reach an accommodation
between the two sides”.

The pressure of the U.S. and other powerful states which have recognized Kosovo independence
shall further increase after such opinion of the ICJ and this can be one new chapter in relations of
the European countries and their minorities.