From speaking visa-free journey with the renegade Serbian province of Kosovo to demanding Serbia renege on a free-trade pact with Moscow, the EU retains appearing as if the approaching Brexit is not going to shatter its phantasm of inevitability.
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s present overseas coverage czar, argued on Thursday that Kosovo must be granted visa-free journey privileges, as “all the necessities for the abolition of visas have been met.” How precisely would this work within the 5 EU member states that haven’t acknowledged Kosovo, she didn’t say.
Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain have refused to acknowledge the renegade Serbian province ever because the ethnic Albanian provisional authorities declared independence in 2008. Serbia has likewise refused recognition, formally as a result of it violates the UN Safety Council Decision 1244 that licensed a NATO peacekeeping presence within the province in 1999, following an unlawful air battle on behalf of the Albanian separatists.
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Kosovo: A decade of dependence
Serbian FM Ivica Dacic has already protested the presence of ‘Kosovo’ FM Behgjet Pacolli on the casual assembly of EU overseas ministers in Helsinki, the place Mogherini made her pitch. Serbia is a candidate for EU membership, whereas Kosovo isn’t.
The European Fee responded that Pacolli’s presence was “mandatory and helpful” as a result of Mogherini wished the “participation of all Western Balkan nations to debate essential subjects geared toward bettering regional cooperation.”
Whereas each Serbian authorities because the October 2000 “shade revolution” has spoken of EU membership because the foremost foreign-policy goal, Brussels has repeatedly made clear that the precondition for that is for Belgrade to “reckon with actuality” and acknowledge Kosovo. That has been a step too far for even probably the most ardently pro-EU politicians.
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Makes an attempt by President Aleksandar Vucic to realize leverage with the EU by romancing the Kremlin have solely hardened the place of each Brussels and Washington. The unwillingness of the US and EU to open any sort of loophole for Vucic to squeeze the popularity via – in alternate for even the tiniest empty gesture he might spin as a win – has, mockingly, stalled the entire course of.
Caught within the EU’s ready room, Vucic has sought short-term good points by signing a free-trade pact with the Eurasian Financial Union, a bloc led by Russia and China. The treaty shall be formalized on October 25, the Russian ambassador to Belgrade has introduced.
Evidently, Brussels isn’t blissful. Whereas Belgrade is after all free to make any treaties with anybody proper now, “within the context of accession talks, Serbia is obligated to withdraw from all bilateral commerce agreements on the day of its accession to the EU,” the European Fee stated this week, whereas different high-ranking EU officers advised Belgrade the treaty must have an “exit clause.”
If all of this sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of it’s: Brussels supplied the very same phrases to Ukraine again in 2013, main President Viktor Yanukovych to decide on a commerce take care of Russia as a substitute – whereupon he was overthrown in a bloody coup that plunged the nation into chaos and civil battle.
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Whereas EU positions on the ‘Western Balkans’ haven’t modified a bit since then, circumstances have. The bloc’s management now finds itself at odds with US President Donald Trump on Iran and commerce. Brussels has additionally needed to take care of hundreds of thousands of migrants, political drama in Catalonia, and the UK determination in 2016 to depart.
All of those current an existential problem to the bloc whose key promoting factors because the finish of the Chilly Warfare have been inevitability and a promise of prosperity. But how has that labored out for Romania, Bulgaria, and even Greece? Then there may be the Yellow Vests motion in France, and the rise of other events in Italy and Germany…
October 31 is the onerous deadline for Brexit. It is usually the day Mogherini’s mandate runs out, together with the remainder of the present European Fee. The day after could possibly be greater than just the start of a brand new EC mandate, however a wholly new leaf for the EU as properly – an opportunity to reckon with actuality, if you’ll.
Nebojsa Malic
Nebojsa Malic is a Serbian-American journalist and political commentator for RT America, primarily based in Washington, DC.
