US-EU secret document, without Germany, supports Kosovo- Serbia

A recent memorandum drafted by the EU's foreign service dealing with resolving the old dispute between Kosovo and Serbia, which has seen “The Wall Street Journal”, shows that the EU executive body in essence has adopted Washington's argument and has rejected it from Germany.

While the agreement says that Europe and the US continue to work together closely in foreign policy initiatives affecting the region, the rift with Germany also shows Washington's readiness to ignore objections to the continent's main power, Koha.net broadcasts.

In the document, the EU shows support for a joint Kosovo-Serbia plan, supported by US President Donald Trump's administration, to rewrite the borders in Southeast Europe as a way to ensure full citizenship for Kosovo's small and blocked country. If this fails, the memorandum says, the country with 2 million inhabitants could enter criminality, conflict and Islamic extremism.

In recent weeks, the two countries have discussed a plan to exchange territory along their common border to better reflect the models of the settlement of Serbs and ethnic Albanians. While President Thaci and Vuciq favour exchange of territory, through close people with the talks they say they disagree in some areas, such as the divided town of Mitrovica. Vuciqi also faces controversy within Serbia. “Serbs just want to lose everything”, Vuciqi said this week. “They want to cry over something that's left behind rather than keep something in their hands”.

For their part, German leaders oppose territorial exchange for fear it could spur separatism on ethnic grounds in Bosnia and Macedonia and turn the region back into conflict.

The region's borders are “unchanged”, German Chancellor Merkel said last month, this stance empowered by her spokesman on Wednesday that we left behind.

Our “position has been consistent and in accordance with the sorrows of leaders of all neighbouring countries, who have shown concern that the rewrite of the borders can open Pandora's box in a region still unstable”, he has said. Luxembourg and Britain have also displayed reservations to this plan, the Koha.net broadcasts.

The US has ignored Germany's objections, as have senior EU representatives of external relations, with a memorandum saying that rewrite borders would help eliminate more than fuel regional instability.

“for the first time in their history, Serbia and Kosovo will freely reconcile their differences through dialogue”, the document says. If these talks fail, he adds, Kosovo “will become a frozen conflict, and that would mean that eventually” would explode.

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The American Department and the American Embassy in Belgrade have declined to comment on this memo. Last month, Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton said there was no concern for territorial exchange, Koha.net broadcasts.

Merkel's public opposition to rewriteing the borders has caused frustration in Brussels.

“Who thinks the German government is, which immediately opposes negotiations between the two sovereign countries?”, a senior EU official close to discussions has said. “This issue can only be resolved by Kosovo and Serbia, not by involvement from outside”.

While Berlin now insists that European borders are sacred, Germany has played a key role in accelerating Yugoslavia's dissolution when it recognised Croatia and Slovenia's independence in 1991, ahead of most other world powers.

Although, as W writes SJ, American concentration had recently shifted from the region, now the US is returning to the region, according to analysts and officials. Last year, he introduced Montenegro into NATO and is strongly insisting that the other neighbouring state, Macedonia, join the military alliance.

Washington's active support for the Serbia-Kosovo territorial exchange “is simply a testimony to the US dedication to stabilise the” region, Bekim Colak, chief of president Thaci's staff, has said. “I am sure it will eventually be possible to triumph” against German reluctance.