EU: 17 expected to recognize Kosovo

Well thank God there are some EU countries that are willing to stand up to the Germans, the Brits, the French and the Italians. Well done to you all, you have struck a blow for the rule of law.

The EU have acted in bad faith. If the international community had put its weight behind substantial agreed autonomy it could have happened. Instead this was sabotaged by the US EU UK and a few others.

Kosovo is still a province of Serbia until Serbia agrees otherwise.

Spain's text, however, does not mention the establishing of relations with an "independent state" and underscores that relations with Kosovo should be in accordance with international law.
--

Thus burying any hope of Kosovo entering the EU as a quasi entity. I wonder how long it will take the Albanians to realise they are going nowhere and this celebration is about at good as it gets. The party ends as soon as the hangover kicks in and the gates close to lock the Albanians into their little quasi world - possibly with very limited electricity and water!

So now there are only 17 EU members expected to recognise independence? Even that may be wishing thinking but what happened to the 21 member story? Just another lie no doubt like they expected recognition from 100 countries.

Seems like the momentum is heading in Serbia's direction. We just need to be patient and time the diplomatic attack accordingly.

There was never any other viable solution to a negotiated settlement! Imposed solutions just do not work!

"a unique case that does not set precedent".
What is the process for evaluating the " uniqueness" of any given case?
Who has the final say is a case unique enough or not? Individual countries?
Can any country decide that such and such is " unique " and start " recognizing " any territory its feels so?
Can EU now insist that (let say Serbia) has to meet its obligations under the international rule - even if EU itself evidently does not give a toss about those rules them self?
Is there a set of common rules any more?

Well, for us, Romanians, not recognizing Kosovo UDI is a matter of being the biggest country neighboring Serbia, and probably Serbians best neighbor ever. (By the way, in the group of EU countries opposing Kosovo UDI, Romania is the only Serbian neighbour... I am saddened by Bulgarians!)
For people not familiar with the features of the Balkan region, I should stress that Romanians are not Slavs (but Latins), and our Orthodox Church is using the West-type calendar, like Greeks, celebrating the Christmas same time with Catholics, 2 weeks earlier than Serbs and Russians.
However, it seems that Spain and Cyprus were doing the hard work today in Brussels. But Romanian president just stated today, regarding the wish of US that Kosovo UDI to be widely recognized: "Romania may have a strategic partnership with Americans, but we will not give up positions related to national interest".

On the other hand, brothers are brothers, but the business is business: maybe you, Serbs, will suggest to Moscow to build that oil-pipe (Russians promised to reach Trieste) also through Romania :)))

Best to everbody!
PS: sorry Kosovo/Albanians, we realize you are upset on Romanians, but please don't give up your national anthem, composed by the Romanian composer Ciprian Porumbescu! It's such a beautiful patriotic song, everybody knows it in Romania!

"EU leaves decision to members"

Translation: Pass the Buck. How pathetic is this that all international institutions experience deadlock over what to do with The Kolony of Kosova. In most normal circumstances, deadlock means go back to the negotiating table and try to come to a more amicable agreement. However here, a few states, in an effort to carve out a nice strategic foothold in SE Europe, have essentially played Eminent Domain on someone else's property.

Instead of being greeted with a standing ovation, the Albanian government in Pristina is being met with muted applause and incredibly reserved optimism.

Create stability, eh?

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

The EU is impotent.

By pretending that there would be a unified position and not reaching it (which was to be expected) the EU cut itself today so deep that the scar will be seen and felt for a long long time. I just hope that the countries that oppose will be strong and not give into pressure to prevent that Kosovo will ever join the EU. The proposed Kosovo flag is also a joke. The color of Kosovo geographical shape should be black and the six stars that represent the ethnic groups should be replaced by one half moon symbol (muslim majority). I wonder if the EU has the arrogance to offer Serbia the SAA the coming days (they may be so ignorant). I guess certain former colonial countries realized that having colonies like in the past is an expensive excercise. That is why they decided to look for victims closer to home, not to have a military occupation but create a financial independence and let cheap (slave) labour come to you. In that sense not much has changed from 70 years ago. All the blood that was waisted for nothing!

Although the article states that this declaration of independence is an isolated case, we ALL know this is not true!

If the UN was formed, why does it allow & assist in the violation of international law? Additionally, take note of the countries that recognize Kosovo's independence - all puppets of the US.

It will be interesting if in the future an even more confident and arrogant Germany will claim the Elzas (from France), the former Prussia (now Poland) and some
former Baltic Sea territories (from Russia) back. In addition, France can claim The Channel Islands and maybe Flanders wants to rejoin The Netherlands. The list can go on and on. Then we will see how united the EU is (or should I write the ED). This is what politicians wanted (in Brussels and Washington DC) and the only one who will benefit is the US.

PS. B92, why did you remove the article and comments on Bush recognizing the Kosovo UDI? Please put them back. Thank you.

EU Brussels was pushing fore it now pretend they had nothing to do with it. How typical of EU technocrats and has been politicians wash your hands clean of it ,just keep the money rolling in to Brussels and hypocrisies.

I'm a Spaniard with strong personal ties to Serbia. I believe that what had happened is the product of 3 factors:
-The lack of guiding moral principle in US foreign policy.
-The anemic inability of the EU to formulate and execute one.
-The acts of Milosevic's Serbia.
But today is not a day for Sbers to look for someone to blame for this injustice, but to try to make the best out of it.
the truth is that Kosovo (as painful as it may be to accept) was lost in 1999. My own country's position won't be able to turn the tide of events. Serbia will never administer again Kosovo and neither NATO nor the EU want to stay there forever.
Now for Serbia is the time to choose how to play its cards. Options:

-With the US or Russia which will use as a token in their larger game but do not have any long time legitimate interest in the region.
-The EU which despise is internal divisions of how to go at it (and feel free to believe that they are going the wrong way at it) do have the main objective to achieve stability in the region.

With love to you Serbia.

I am truly amazed in a positive way at how the biggest and richest countries in Europe(Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain etc), who started the EU, without which the EU would not have been possible, grant a veto power to every single state that comes in, no matter the contribution of the state to the EU. With all due respect for Cyprus, Cyprus has veto power in the EU. how big is it and when did it join?... Cyprus is able to stop the EU politics of Germany, France, Spain, UK, Italy and all the other countries if it wanted. It's absurd. No, actually it is amazing to see how much power the bigger countries have renounced. That really tells something about Europe. It is so democratic that it risks failure. It is not only about money.
And Serbia almost went backwards in the elections...Almost..
Serbs, your future is in EU, so stop attacking Europe, or stop those that are doing it. Remember, Albania has already signed the SAA and it may have veto power in Europe before you do(just trying to scare you to do the right thing :)).
And now they EU is coming to help Kosovo. They will help Serbs and Albanians in the same way. How can't you see that it is a good thing?
How can't a big guy like Kostunica see that it is a good thing for Serbia to go towards EU? It is not related to Kosovo. Nobody will put Kosovo under Serbia again, not until there are 2 million (and growing) Albanians there. It would mean war. Nobody wants that.

Give Mladic and Karadzic to the Hague. They are holding all Serbia back. Maybe they know stuff about someone powerful in Serbia, who doesn't want them to talk, who knows?!.. Who are the strongest criticizers of the Hague, who have some important position today in Serbia and had important positions during the war in Bosnia too? Feeling like Sherlock Holmes tonight, :)...

Before anything, everybody knows and should not be doubted that what happened in Kosovo in 98/99 was terribly bad and it should not ever happen again. My stance, as a romanian citizen and taxpayer is a no for Kosovo. I think the serbian criminals that deliberatly killed alabanians in Kosovo should pay for what they did and that the albanians should benefit from all political, cultural and economical rights in an autonomous or even independent Kosovo, but this should not be done by breaking the international law. Do not think for a moment that Romania is not recognising Kosovo because of sympathy for the serbians, that exists, but here the stake is much higher. The precedent that is set up here is not that maybe other regions throughout the would declare independence, but the dangerous precedent is that a UN SC decision is completly disregarded, I'd say in a quite provocatory matter. Then Iran can sent everybody to hell and develop nuclear weapons as it pleases or N Korea no? For all of us living in normal countries with no imperial interests and no nuclear weapons, the LAW was the only mean of defense.

Its so funny to read some of the cynic postinings. Its much more funny to see people talking about compliance of laws and regulations set forth by the UN. Where you been when ethnic cleansing was going gon? What did you do to prevent it?

I've long held that the Albanians will be victims of the UDI. It's too much of an ask of a people long indoctrinated in an an aggressive nationalism at the expense of basic humanity toward others. No man, or people, are an island! We're all inter-dependent. With the spotlight on them, does anyone truly expect the Albanians to "grow up" overnight. It's clear that Albanians expect the West, US in particular, to "look after them", but I don't see anyone's willingness to carry the Albanians lasting indefinitely. BTW, can anyone enlighten as to what the 6 stars on the new "Kosova flag", symbolise? Surely, it's not an arbitrary number.

Dear Vlastislav,

We have not removed that article, it is now updated under, "Kosovo recognition: Afghanistan first, France, U.S. follow".

We also take this opportunity to apologize to all our visitors who are experiencing technical difficulties. This is due to the heavy traffic on our entire website, which has reported over 300,000 unique visitors who opened more than two million pages today so far.

We hope to completely stabilize the system as soon as possible.

Regards,

B92

As of tomorrow, February the 19th, 2008 the British and French foreign ministries respectivley will oficially open Embasiess in Prishtina. it has come to my attention that nobody is mentioning who else besides Russia, Slovakia, Cypres is not recognizing Kosovos independence. I would like to take this opportunity and ask these guys to recognize Kosovo's indepenmdence for the sake of the wellbeing of the human race. Viva la Rebublc of Kosova
cheers spunky

Not a pretty news: Kinga Göntz, foreign minister of Hungary (SZDSZ) is returning home with the proposal that "Budapest should make steps in the direction of Kosovo recognition"

http://hvg.hu/vilag/20080218_eu_koszovo_elismeres.aspx

Same time Ms. Göntz was underscoring to Hungarian journalists how important blah-blah-blah is Hungary's relation with Serbia blah-blah-blah-blah and we want to keep the good relation blah-blah-blah-blah

(my comment: dream on)

http://hvg.hu/vilag/20080218_eu_koszovo_elismeres.aspx

The proposal will be approved or rejected by the parlament, so let's see.

I see huge chances, it will be approved.

Once more, Hungary seem to prove - it is easy to buy it and it does not cost much. Thumbs down.

Hint: Serbia putting pressure on Hungary regarding Kosovo recognition would be a smaller victory than, say, Germany - but given the known very special circumstances a much easier battle to win. Chose your battles wisely.

Interestingly today we can see a link on the hvg.hu

http://travelline.hu/hirek-szines/20080218_hitler_belgrad.aspx?s=rss

which elaborately describes, there is a hotel in Belgrade with a room dedicated to Hitler. They admit, that room is frequented mostly by Croatian, Slovenian and German guests... but the timing of publishing such news is probably not a coincidence (Feb. 16, 2008)

Just FYI. I know there are some who hope, this kind of mood will hope Hungarians in Vojvodina. I have a different opinion.

To "George the Romanian". Yes, we support them, but nothing in this world is for free! The issue is called "minority rights for the vlachs". We want to see some progress there, because if not, people could change their mind very soon.

Arben,
Are you speaking about the ethnic cleansing (or lack thereof) in Kosovo? http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/pearl123199.htm

At least some nations in the EU have the common sense to respect international law. Such noble behavior such as standing up against the NEW world powers will be greatly appreciated by the Serbian people.

The EU is impotent.

Well thank God there are some EU countries that are willing to stand up to the Germans, the Brits, the French and the Italians. Well done to you all, you have struck a blow for the rule of law.

I am truly amazed in a positive way at how the biggest and richest countries in Europe(Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain etc), who started the EU, without which the EU would not have been possible, grant a veto power to every single state that comes in, no matter the contribution of the state to the EU. With all due respect for Cyprus, Cyprus has veto power in the EU. how big is it and when did it join?... Cyprus is able to stop the EU politics of Germany, France, Spain, UK, Italy and all the other countries if it wanted. It's absurd. No, actually it is amazing to see how much power the bigger countries have renounced. That really tells something about Europe. It is so democratic that it risks failure. It is not only about money.
And Serbia almost went backwards in the elections...Almost..
Serbs, your future is in EU, so stop attacking Europe, or stop those that are doing it. Remember, Albania has already signed the SAA and it may have veto power in Europe before you do(just trying to scare you to do the right thing :)).
And now they EU is coming to help Kosovo. They will help Serbs and Albanians in the same way. How can't you see that it is a good thing?
How can't a big guy like Kostunica see that it is a good thing for Serbia to go towards EU? It is not related to Kosovo. Nobody will put Kosovo under Serbia again, not until there are 2 million (and growing) Albanians there. It would mean war. Nobody wants that.

Give Mladic and Karadzic to the Hague. They are holding all Serbia back. Maybe they know stuff about someone powerful in Serbia, who doesn't want them to talk, who knows?!.. Who are the strongest criticizers of the Hague, who have some important position today in Serbia and had important positions during the war in Bosnia too? Feeling like Sherlock Holmes tonight, :)...

As of tomorrow, February the 19th, 2008 the British and French foreign ministries respectivley will oficially open Embasiess in Prishtina. it has come to my attention that nobody is mentioning who else besides Russia, Slovakia, Cypres is not recognizing Kosovos independence. I would like to take this opportunity and ask these guys to recognize Kosovo's indepenmdence for the sake of the wellbeing of the human race. Viva la Rebublc of Kosova
cheers spunky

"a unique case that does not set precedent".
What is the process for evaluating the " uniqueness" of any given case?
Who has the final say is a case unique enough or not? Individual countries?
Can any country decide that such and such is " unique " and start " recognizing " any territory its feels so?
Can EU now insist that (let say Serbia) has to meet its obligations under the international rule - even if EU itself evidently does not give a toss about those rules them self?
Is there a set of common rules any more?

The EU have acted in bad faith. If the international community had put its weight behind substantial agreed autonomy it could have happened. Instead this was sabotaged by the US EU UK and a few others.

Kosovo is still a province of Serbia until Serbia agrees otherwise.

By pretending that there would be a unified position and not reaching it (which was to be expected) the EU cut itself today so deep that the scar will be seen and felt for a long long time. I just hope that the countries that oppose will be strong and not give into pressure to prevent that Kosovo will ever join the EU. The proposed Kosovo flag is also a joke. The color of Kosovo geographical shape should be black and the six stars that represent the ethnic groups should be replaced by one half moon symbol (muslim majority). I wonder if the EU has the arrogance to offer Serbia the SAA the coming days (they may be so ignorant). I guess certain former colonial countries realized that having colonies like in the past is an expensive excercise. That is why they decided to look for victims closer to home, not to have a military occupation but create a financial independence and let cheap (slave) labour come to you. In that sense not much has changed from 70 years ago. All the blood that was waisted for nothing!

Well, for us, Romanians, not recognizing Kosovo UDI is a matter of being the biggest country neighboring Serbia, and probably Serbians best neighbor ever. (By the way, in the group of EU countries opposing Kosovo UDI, Romania is the only Serbian neighbour... I am saddened by Bulgarians!)
For people not familiar with the features of the Balkan region, I should stress that Romanians are not Slavs (but Latins), and our Orthodox Church is using the West-type calendar, like Greeks, celebrating the Christmas same time with Catholics, 2 weeks earlier than Serbs and Russians.
However, it seems that Spain and Cyprus were doing the hard work today in Brussels. But Romanian president just stated today, regarding the wish of US that Kosovo UDI to be widely recognized: "Romania may have a strategic partnership with Americans, but we will not give up positions related to national interest".

On the other hand, brothers are brothers, but the business is business: maybe you, Serbs, will suggest to Moscow to build that oil-pipe (Russians promised to reach Trieste) also through Romania :)))

Best to everbody!
PS: sorry Kosovo/Albanians, we realize you are upset on Romanians, but please don't give up your national anthem, composed by the Romanian composer Ciprian Porumbescu! It's such a beautiful patriotic song, everybody knows it in Romania!

Although the article states that this declaration of independence is an isolated case, we ALL know this is not true!

If the UN was formed, why does it allow & assist in the violation of international law? Additionally, take note of the countries that recognize Kosovo's independence - all puppets of the US.

It will be interesting if in the future an even more confident and arrogant Germany will claim the Elzas (from France), the former Prussia (now Poland) and some
former Baltic Sea territories (from Russia) back. In addition, France can claim The Channel Islands and maybe Flanders wants to rejoin The Netherlands. The list can go on and on. Then we will see how united the EU is (or should I write the ED). This is what politicians wanted (in Brussels and Washington DC) and the only one who will benefit is the US.

PS. B92, why did you remove the article and comments on Bush recognizing the Kosovo UDI? Please put them back. Thank you.

Dear Vlastislav,

We have not removed that article, it is now updated under, "Kosovo recognition: Afghanistan first, France, U.S. follow".

We also take this opportunity to apologize to all our visitors who are experiencing technical difficulties. This is due to the heavy traffic on our entire website, which has reported over 300,000 unique visitors who opened more than two million pages today so far.

We hope to completely stabilize the system as soon as possible.

Regards,

B92

"EU leaves decision to members"

Translation: Pass the Buck. How pathetic is this that all international institutions experience deadlock over what to do with The Kolony of Kosova. In most normal circumstances, deadlock means go back to the negotiating table and try to come to a more amicable agreement. However here, a few states, in an effort to carve out a nice strategic foothold in SE Europe, have essentially played Eminent Domain on someone else's property.

Instead of being greeted with a standing ovation, the Albanian government in Pristina is being met with muted applause and incredibly reserved optimism.

Create stability, eh?

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

EU Brussels was pushing fore it now pretend they had nothing to do with it. How typical of EU technocrats and has been politicians wash your hands clean of it ,just keep the money rolling in to Brussels and hypocrisies.

Spain's text, however, does not mention the establishing of relations with an "independent state" and underscores that relations with Kosovo should be in accordance with international law.
--

Thus burying any hope of Kosovo entering the EU as a quasi entity. I wonder how long it will take the Albanians to realise they are going nowhere and this celebration is about at good as it gets. The party ends as soon as the hangover kicks in and the gates close to lock the Albanians into their little quasi world - possibly with very limited electricity and water!

So now there are only 17 EU members expected to recognise independence? Even that may be wishing thinking but what happened to the 21 member story? Just another lie no doubt like they expected recognition from 100 countries.

Seems like the momentum is heading in Serbia's direction. We just need to be patient and time the diplomatic attack accordingly.

There was never any other viable solution to a negotiated settlement! Imposed solutions just do not work!

Before anything, everybody knows and should not be doubted that what happened in Kosovo in 98/99 was terribly bad and it should not ever happen again. My stance, as a romanian citizen and taxpayer is a no for Kosovo. I think the serbian criminals that deliberatly killed alabanians in Kosovo should pay for what they did and that the albanians should benefit from all political, cultural and economical rights in an autonomous or even independent Kosovo, but this should not be done by breaking the international law. Do not think for a moment that Romania is not recognising Kosovo because of sympathy for the serbians, that exists, but here the stake is much higher. The precedent that is set up here is not that maybe other regions throughout the would declare independence, but the dangerous precedent is that a UN SC decision is completly disregarded, I'd say in a quite provocatory matter. Then Iran can sent everybody to hell and develop nuclear weapons as it pleases or N Korea no? For all of us living in normal countries with no imperial interests and no nuclear weapons, the LAW was the only mean of defense.

Not a pretty news: Kinga Göntz, foreign minister of Hungary (SZDSZ) is returning home with the proposal that "Budapest should make steps in the direction of Kosovo recognition"

http://hvg.hu/vilag/20080218_eu_koszovo_elismeres.aspx

Same time Ms. Göntz was underscoring to Hungarian journalists how important blah-blah-blah is Hungary's relation with Serbia blah-blah-blah-blah and we want to keep the good relation blah-blah-blah-blah

(my comment: dream on)

http://hvg.hu/vilag/20080218_eu_koszovo_elismeres.aspx

The proposal will be approved or rejected by the parlament, so let's see.

I see huge chances, it will be approved.

Once more, Hungary seem to prove - it is easy to buy it and it does not cost much. Thumbs down.

Hint: Serbia putting pressure on Hungary regarding Kosovo recognition would be a smaller victory than, say, Germany - but given the known very special circumstances a much easier battle to win. Chose your battles wisely.

Interestingly today we can see a link on the hvg.hu

http://travelline.hu/hirek-szines/20080218_hitler_belgrad.aspx?s=rss

which elaborately describes, there is a hotel in Belgrade with a room dedicated to Hitler. They admit, that room is frequented mostly by Croatian, Slovenian and German guests... but the timing of publishing such news is probably not a coincidence (Feb. 16, 2008)

Just FYI. I know there are some who hope, this kind of mood will hope Hungarians in Vojvodina. I have a different opinion.

Its so funny to read some of the cynic postinings. Its much more funny to see people talking about compliance of laws and regulations set forth by the UN. Where you been when ethnic cleansing was going gon? What did you do to prevent it?

I've long held that the Albanians will be victims of the UDI. It's too much of an ask of a people long indoctrinated in an an aggressive nationalism at the expense of basic humanity toward others. No man, or people, are an island! We're all inter-dependent. With the spotlight on them, does anyone truly expect the Albanians to "grow up" overnight. It's clear that Albanians expect the West, US in particular, to "look after them", but I don't see anyone's willingness to carry the Albanians lasting indefinitely. BTW, can anyone enlighten as to what the 6 stars on the new "Kosova flag", symbolise? Surely, it's not an arbitrary number.

To "George the Romanian". Yes, we support them, but nothing in this world is for free! The issue is called "minority rights for the vlachs". We want to see some progress there, because if not, people could change their mind very soon.

Arben,
Are you speaking about the ethnic cleansing (or lack thereof) in Kosovo? http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/pearl123199.htm

At least some nations in the EU have the common sense to respect international law. Such noble behavior such as standing up against the NEW world powers will be greatly appreciated by the Serbian people.

I'm a Spaniard with strong personal ties to Serbia. I believe that what had happened is the product of 3 factors:
-The lack of guiding moral principle in US foreign policy.
-The anemic inability of the EU to formulate and execute one.
-The acts of Milosevic's Serbia.
But today is not a day for Sbers to look for someone to blame for this injustice, but to try to make the best out of it.
the truth is that Kosovo (as painful as it may be to accept) was lost in 1999. My own country's position won't be able to turn the tide of events. Serbia will never administer again Kosovo and neither NATO nor the EU want to stay there forever.
Now for Serbia is the time to choose how to play its cards. Options:

-With the US or Russia which will use as a token in their larger game but do not have any long time legitimate interest in the region.
-The EU which despise is internal divisions of how to go at it (and feel free to believe that they are going the wrong way at it) do have the main objective to achieve stability in the region.

With love to you Serbia.