Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-20-Speech-3-271"
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"en.20080220.14.3-271"2
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"Mr President, it is difficult not to feel very uneasy about the responsibilities taken on by the European Union and its Member States in the Kosovo affair.
Firstly, in principle the EU aims to contribute to better world governance. Yet under its impetus, several Member States have weakened or are about to weaken dangerously the future credibility of international law through their support for the unilateral declaration of independence by a province of a sovereign state, a member of the UN. Whatever is said about the
because that is not decreed – the EU’s major powers thus place power relations above the law, and in doing so open a Pandora’s box. This is serious.
Next, this unilateral recognition is in serious danger of going against the EU’s stated objectives in the Balkans. It will fuel nationalism rather than stemming its sources. Furthermore, the EU has just deeply alienated the Serbian people, without whom any regional policy in that part of Europe is impossible. As it happens I am not talking about those who would like to have Milošević back, but those who opposed him and are now in the majority. As for the Kosovo Albanians themselves, will the EU be able to satisfy their expectations after fuelling them? It is a question worth asking, hence the third reason for the unease felt after this day of jubilation in Kosovo.
The new challenge the European Union has just given itself is quite breathtaking. Here we are in the front line, heading towards a new protectorate, even though no satisfactory analysis has been produced of the reasons for the failure of the previous protectorate: Kosovo’s gross domestic product is equivalent to that of Rwanda, half of its active population is unemployed, there are more than 200 000 refugees and displaced people, and violence against minorities is on the increase, despite EUR 2 billion of international aid and the presence of 17 000 NATO troops. It will not be EULEX that sorts out all these problems.
What comprehensive lasting prospect is the European Union able to offer to the Kosovars and to the other peoples of the Balkans – a prospect that can stabilise the situation here without the risk of destabilising it elsewhere? Membership? Within what timescale? Under what conditions? With what degree of probability that the necessary unanimous agreement of the 27 Member States will be secured? Nobody knows.
Clearly, my group cannot associate itself with the short-term self-satisfaction of the principal European leaders."@en1
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