European Forum

Kosovo brings Serbia into regional isolation?

On 19 March Serbia’s President Boris Tadić decided not to attend the regional summit in old Tito residence in Slovenian Brdo near Kranj, which aims to bring together the regional leaders of the Western Balkans. The conference, which is scheduled for March 20, has been named “Together for the European Union: Contribution of the Western Balkans to the European Future” with a goal to resolve some of the open issues in the region. It was supposed to be the first meeting of all the political leaders in the region in 18 years. Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor stated that the conference will be held “regardless who will attend” and that he would “not hold anyone's decision not to participate against them”.

After absence of President Tadić during the inauguration of Croatian President Ivo Josipović and walking away of the Serbian delegation during a conference in Tirana as the Kosovo delegation walked in, the Brdo conference seems to confirm that Serbia is getting isolated regionally when it comes to its position on Kosovo. Tadić stated earlier that “Serbia cannot accept to have Kosovo recognized implicitly as a separate state, through the solving of technical problems related to regional forums, regional communication and regional cooperation”. For now countries from the region that have recognised Kosovo have decided to establish offical ties with Kosovo and invite the official to regional events, which brings Serbia into isolation.

From the beginning Tadić argued that Serbia shall participate if Kosovo Albanians participate under the name of UNMIK-Kosovo as that is in line with the UN decisions and since both Slovenia and Croatia are the UN members. However, Pahor invited the officials from Kosovo who confirmed their participation, just as other leaders from the region, and insisted Kosovo should be represented as “an independent state”. Pahors’ unannounced night trips to Belgrade aiming to persuade Tadić to attend the regional summit and his efforts to solve the issues technically – it was proposed not to mention the position of the participants – were in vain. In addition, the efforts of Pahor and international envoy’s to bring Serbia on the table could be contra productive, as they seem to have anger Tadić: “It comes from the other side of decency, if some international envoys, whether EP rapporteurs, whether politicians from other countries, tell Serbia what she must do about this. We know full well what we must do,” Tadić stated.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy is expected to make a decision by Friday afternoon on whether he would be attending the event. Sources from Van Rompuy's cabinet have told Beta news agency that his talk on Thursday with Pahor “did not give any results” that would affect his decision regarding his presence at the conference.

Source: B92, Blic and BIRN