| ONE YEAR SINCE KOSOVO DECLARED ITS INDEPENDENCE 17/02/2009 |
| (2009-02-17) |
| Last updated: 2009-02-19 14:20 EET |
The main supporter of the youngest state in the Balkans, the United States hailed what president Barack Obama dubbed “the historic declaration of independence of Kosovo.” But the government in Belgrade, which has a separate ministry for Kosovo, stated that, irrespective of what Serbs regard as “a unilateral secession from Serbia,” Belgrade will “never give up fighting for Kosovo, which is part and parcel of Serbia.”
In legal terms, Serbia was authorised by the UN General Assembly to notify the International Court of Justice on Pristina’s decision to declare its independence. For ten years, the issue has been dividing the international community and the United Nations’ Security Council. Starting 1999, western members of the Council (and of NATO) such as the US, UK and France, were the key players in the NATO military intervention against former Yugoslavia, in the name of defending human rights.
On the other hand, Russia and China put forth arguments such as Serbia’s sovereignty and integrity, acting as advocates of the Slobodan Milosevic regime. Out of close to 200 countries in the world, only 54 have endorsed the independence of Kosovo. True enough, these include 22 of the EU member states. Of the EU members, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Slovakia and Romania are the only ones to deny the new status of the province, either out of solidarity with Belgrade, or out of fear that this might be a dangerous precedent in Europe.
The European Parliament has recently called on these countries to accept the independence of Kosovo, which prompted the Romanian foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu to state that Bucharest’s position remained unchanged, on grounds that Kosovo’s unilateral declaration comes against international law principles and norms. This position does not necessarily stem from some unreserved solidarity with neighbouring Serbia.
In 1999, Romania’s Christian-Democratic president, Emil Constantinescu, and the independent foreign minister Andrei Plesu jeopardised their popularity and ultimately their political careers, when they supported NATO and the pro-western Serb opposition against Milosevic’s dictatorship.
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2025-04-03
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