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The one-sided war of dreadful non-papers continues, mine next!

Koha Ditore has published a non-paper on the EU-sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. The origins of the paper have not been verified, though it is widely referred to as French and German. They deny it originates with official Paris and Berlin.

I’m not worried about the origins of the paper. It clearly reflects ideas discussed within the EU. I comment below on its dreadful contents.

While asserting the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of both Kosovo and Serbia, in practice this proposal requires that Pristina surrender practical application of sovereignty over economic development, health, urban and rural planning in Serbian communities both north and south of the Ibar River as well as sovereignty over dozens of Serbian Orthodox Church sites and institutions, whose protective zones would be extended in some undefined fashion. In the north, this proposal includes an “autonomous” district that would in addition acquire legislative authority over finance, property, infrastructure, culture, social welfare, the judiciary and police, housing, and European cooperation, with only a vague wave of the hand in the direction of Kosovo’s constitution.

In return, Pristina gets practically nothing: no bilateral recognition by Serbia and no UN membership, only vague promises of treatment as a sovereign state, including exchange of ill-defined permanent diplomatic missions. President Vucic was right when he said this offers more than the Ahtisaari Plan. It offers a great deal more to Serbia and requires much less of Belgrade. It would even roll back specific provisions of the 2013 Brussels Agreement that extended Pristina’s judicial and police authority to northern Kosovo.

All you need to do to understand the profound unfairness of this proposal is to ask whether Belgrade would be prepared to make it reciprocal, empowering the Albanian-majority communities of southern Serbia in the way proposed here for the Serb-majority municipalities of Kosovo. “No” is the answer. Nor would Serbia be prepared to offer an undefined extension of protected areas around mosques inside Serbia. Reciprocity is one of the basic rules of sovereign states. This proposal would leave the Kosovo state significantly less sovereign than it is today while asking Belgrade to do little more than continue to maintain a representative in Pristina.

The non-paper war is not doing the cause of peace and stability in the Western Balkans much good. The two salvos so far have come from one side, the first in favor of moving borders to accommodate ethnic differences and the second in favor of keeping borders where they are but not respecting the Kosovo’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. So I think I’ll prepare my own non-paper. It won’t move borders and will be consistent with official US policy of respect for the sovereignty and terrritorial integrity of all the states of the Balkans, but it will add some practical means of achieving what most in Europe, the US, and the Western Balkans says they want: prosperous and democratic states worthy of EU membership. Look for it in the next few days on peacefare.net!