Bildt: UNMIK stays in Kosovo, EU’s plans have to change
Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the United Nations mission in Kosovo would have to maintain its presence in the troubled territory because Russia and the West failed to agree future steps in the province within the frameworks of the UN Security Council.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, March 10, 2008
Bildt, who was the first foreign minister to visit Pristina after the unilateral declaration of independence, explained that UNMIK will have stay in the province mainly due to the fact that less than 30 out of 192 countries in the world have recognized Kosovo's secession so far.
"We are operating in a somewhat different situation from the one that we were planning for. Accordingly, we will have to start to adjust the plans," Bildt said in Pristina.
The main difference between initial Western plans for Kosovo's independence and the current situation is the fact that there will be no 120-days-long "transitional" period for UNMIK, as defined by the former Finish President Martti Ahtisaari.
"The change is likely to see the U.N. mission remaining longer in Kosovo than the four-month period foreseen under the settlement that allowed for Kosovo to declare independence ... The UN can be the bridge between those that have recognized and will recognize and those that don't but still want to make a contribution," Bildt said.
Apart from organizational problems for the EU, Bildt also admitted that wide autonomy for Kosovo Serbs would be needed in order to bridge the ethnic tensions between two main groups in the province, but has ruled out the division.
"The Kosovo society is a divided society. There will be local autonomy, local settlement on local self-government in order to overcome in the long term the division that is in the Kosovo society today", Bildt said.
Speaking ahead of Monday's EU Council of ministers, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said he was worried by the possibility that a "change of political regime" in Serbia after the May parliamentary elections could "complicate" the situation in northern Kosovo.
"We have a problem in northern Kosovo. We are conscious that a change of political regime in Serbia could complicate things", Rupel said.
The Slovenian minister, who holds the presidency of the Council, said he was not worried about the fact that the process of recognition of Kosovo's secession was slower than expected.
