“N. Kosovo solution should be modeled after Catalonia”

How about Northern Kosovo continue to stay within Serbia and the rest of Kosovo gain autonomy? This fool is a menace to decent society.

“We cannot tolerate a new EU candidate bringing a frozen conflict in. We cannot have both things, the candidate that is moving forward and at the same time holding northern Kosovo by its neck. The feeling is now present in certain number of EU member states,” Feith concluded.

I agree. The Kosovo Albanians have had their fun but have been a nuisance and a threat to peace stability for too long. Pressure needs to be put on them to stop their games of aggression and learn to live as peaceful people with other peace-loving people in the Balkans. They need to accept the reality that northern Kosovo is gone and will never be under their control. Because if they continue with their war games and try to impose parallel structures there, they may lose even more. :)

"He assessed that Serbia, whose aim is to join the EU,"

What EU?? There is not going to be an EU much longer Mr.Faith. This time the "men" that mercilessly pillage God's nature and mercilessly devour His children got way too greedy and careless.(Good luck bluffing when you are broke and exhibiting fear).
Be very careful of that grave that's being dug for the Serbs that it doesn't become the grave of its diggers, or the "grave for us all".

For peace and stability,keep your evil bloody hands off of North Kosovo!

KOSOVO should be modeled after Catalonia

This is kind of important. Feith is the mouthpiece of Washington in the region. US might be seriously considering this, or preparing the ground for Albanian separatists' ethnic cleansing campaign against Serbs.

North of Kosovo should be like Catalonia first when south Serbia (populated by majority albanians) gets the same autonomy. That sounds more fair to me ;)

On the one hand it is good to see Feith finally discussing a serious level of autonomy, unlike the pseudo-autonomy of Ahtisaari where every decision still has to be aproved in Pristina.

But there are some problems:
- in terms of language Northern Kosovo is much more separated from Kosovo as Catalonia from Spain. About every Catalan knows Spanish while few of the Northern Kosovo Serbs do. For Kosovo Serbs Albanian is a much more difficult language as Spanish for Catalans. In addition it is a language that economically is much less attractive to learn.
- North Kosovo is much smaller. For things like higher education it has to rely on a larger entity. For many thing it is logical that that should be Serbia.
- Serbia "holding Northern Kosovo by its neck" is an insult to the Serbs living in Northern Kosovo. It raises the question how much Feith really understands of the feelings of the SErbs in Northern Kosovo.
- It seems that Feiths idea of democracy is that Serbia should influence the Serbs in Northern Kosovo. It might be a better starting point if he went to talk to them himself and took their opinion in account.

Sure, blame it all on Serbia. It's like a person who goes to a store and steals an ipad but claim's it's the "Man's" fault for making the thief poor. The Albanians are the cause of the issue in the North by insisting on having something they have no right too. This Feith guy is an idiot. How about arresting some Albanian criminals Peter.

ARE YOU BRAIN DISEASED PEOPLE AWARE THAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO IMPOSE THE RULE OF THOSE SAME TERRORISTS THAT HARVESTED THESE PEOPLES' ORGANS IN ORDER TO FUND THEIR WAR TO ETHNICALLY CLEANSE THEM ALL AND STEAL THEIR LAND?
Are you f'n people that brain dead or do you want to spill more innocent blood? YOU SCUM OF THE EARTH!!!


Mr.Faith, Serbia is not Afghanistan for you to be imposing Drug Dealing Gangsters and their clansmen mentality/religion/philosophy/codes on the local population against their will.

The KLA and the stillborn is YOUR creation--so you better look for another solution for your frankenstein engineered monsters and your stillborn's needs--and keep them faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from North Kosovo!!!Or you might have yourselves another Afghanistan like it is right now, where you have the WHOLE POPULATION other than few bought,after your "scalps".
Serbs had enough for 500 years living under Turks and their likes--now it's your time and turn to live with them,brother!--and you are not liking it,or are you??

Ok, so Kosovo would become more similar to Spain and when Kosovo government will be lobbied to recognize some new country in the future it will behave like Spain's government.
By the way, "we don't want another Cyprus in the EU" applies to Kosovo as well. Or will apply in the future. That problem is behind the corner, not visible yet but it is there.

"Given that total partition at the Ibar would have the ironic effect of cutting Mitrovica off from the Serb cantons in the south, leaving them thus further isolated and weakened, this plan the EU is obviously cooking, if we can take Feith’s word for it (and he is not someone expected to be radical on this issue), is a pretty damned good one that Serbia should study and accept. For Kosovo it might hopefully also have the effect that Serbian recognition and a stable solution should mean proper independence, rather than the semi-colonial “supervised” type they have now, with the ironic effect also that maybe they could run the place themselves without Feith’s ICO." (DimTuc)

-- An interesting proposal to be sure, and one that I sort of like. For starters, it affirms what the international community has been hinting at for a while: a single Kosovo entity with a northern sector running virtually autonomous from Pristina (and also from Belgrade. It's also a great way to, ideally, draw a line between Belgrade and Mitrovica in that the people currently running the show there could, by simply accepting "Catalonia status" with some EULEX presence, retain their positions and, I assume, continue to profit from their positions. Who cares about transparent government when you can ensure stability? That seems to be the international approach to Kosovo.

One bit of caution I'd throw, and this is more to the possible detriment of Pristina than either Belgrade (which stands to gain) or Mitrovica (which stands to profit) is the possibility of "me too" scenarios among at least the Serbs of Novo Brdo and Strpce, not to mention the Gorani of Dragas. I assume Albanian opposition to a "Catalonia model" for the north has more to do with areas of the center and south that would want the same thing. Personally, I'm in favor of as much decentralization as can be, but that's just my opinion. What matters now is whether EULEX is serious about this offer to northern Kosovo, and more importantly, how they plan on selling the idea. But at least it seems to be what many defenders of Kosovo's sovereignty are also supporting.

Feith! if you think that this is a good solution then why you did not offer this solution to the kosovo albanians during the status negotiation. instead of waisting in experimenting a so called kosovo ran by ganglord like Thaci.
Serbia will never give up the whole kosovo province even if it will result in losing a EU membership.

North Kosovo should get the same status 'srpska krajina' got in Croatia.

This is only the US trying to settle a matter that has gone on for far too long and you only have to look at the US success rate to date which the word FAILURE seems to pop up very frequently. You see even in Libya the west is unsure that the “rebels” are too friendly to them – the west has only done one thing and that is the Islamists now have all the arms they need or will need. Western imbecility is still insufficient to describe their actions.
The US or EU cannot hold out for too long with this status quo in Kosovo and Feith comes out with offers that might tempt the Serbs (stay within an independent Kosovo but have autonomy).
My advice to the Serbs please stay the course as I can guarantee you that you will get everything you want plus more as the US/NATO will not lift a finger to change the current status in that region and that clown Thaci and his goat herders dressed up as police don’t have the means of taking over a bar let alone north Kosovo.
It’s all piss and wind from Washington – have a look at what its spending to “restart” the US economy; a miserable 350 billion. This is not even a spit in the ocean and I can also guarantee you that it would be handing out a trillion if it could afford it.
Serbs stay the course and do not fear as they can’t do a thing to you.

Mr. Feith used to be against any form of autonomy for the north. His proposal for this Catalonia-scenario would be kind of interesting if it would include the enclaves of Gracanica, Strpce and some of the Serb monasteries. Not that it would solve any problem, but the good news is that it looks like Mr. Feith and the criminals he speaks for are giving in. Let's hope this is because they started realising that the truth is somewhat different from what they believed so far. I wonder what will be on offer next...

Well now that’s interesting stuff, coming from Feith. Not that I like Feith; I suspect a lot of Serbs are probably more unnerved by his patrician imperial grandstanding in the “colonies,” as is evidenced by some of this above, than they are by what the K Albanians themselves say and do; and much as he has seemed to be on “their” side, I wonder if K Albanians don’t somewhat chafe silently under the “benevolent king” of their country in the “ICO.”

Anyway, introductions aside, the “Catalonia” solution may well be something everyone can grab at to get out of this frozen conflict. For Pristina it means the north remains officially part of Kosovo, for Belgrade and the northern Serbs, it is something way superior to the Ahtisaari Plan, although the authors of such a plan could probably make Pristina feel better if they could dress it as consistent with that plan.

Personally, I thought the competencies given to the autonomous Serb municipalities under the A Plan, along with their direct links to Belgrade, were pretty high, and it seems most of the Serbs south of the Ibar have learned to live with it, but I well understand why other Serbs, particularly in the north, may see it as way not good enough. Well then, let’s look at the “Catalan model”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Autonomy_of_Catalonia
For example: “The Generalitat de Catalunya is the institution in which the self-government of Catalonia is politically organised. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Generalitat and the Executive Council or Government of Catalonia. The Statute of Autonomy gives the Generalitat of Catalonia the powers which enable it to carry out the functions of self-government. These can be exclusive, concurrent and shared with the Spanish State or executives. The Generalitat holds jurisdiction in various matters of culture, education, health, justice, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments. Catalonia has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, although the Spanish government keep agents in the region for matters relating to border control, terrorism and immigration.”
It is called “autonomy” but is more like the autonomy that Kosovo itself had in 1974-88 than the usual meaning of regional or municipal autonomy. Catalonia has its own government, president, parliament, elections, the entire gamut of ministries, a judiciary, its own police force, its own flag etc. Together with the links to Belgrade already established under the A-Plan, this Catalan form of autonomy (like the late Titoist form in Koosvo) is a way of having the north a federal unit within a semi-federated state without actually calling it that.

Given that total partition at the Ibar would have the ironic effect of cutting Mitrovica off from the Serb cantons in the south, leaving them thus further isolated and weakened, this plan the EU is obviously cooking, if we can take Feith’s word for it (and he is not someone expected to be radical on this issue), is a pretty damned good one that Serbia should study and accept. For Kosovo it might hopefully also have the effect that Serbian recognition and a stable solution should mean proper independence, rather than the semi-colonial “supervised” type they have now, with the ironic effect also that maybe they could run the place themselves without Feith’s ICO.

The best solution is that proposed from Serbia for Albanians.The famous Serbian invention "less then independence,more then autonomy".
This can be applied to Albanian minority in south Serbia first,and if it works can be adapted to Serbian minority in Kosova.Talk is always cheep, Serbia should lead by example.

The better idea would have been to have whole Kosovo within Serbia modeled after Catalonia within Spain. Kosovo as a state is too small to stand on its own feet, everyone can see it (please don't come up comparing it to Switzerland, Monaco or similar states in Europe). The group of the few 100.000 Serbs left in Kosovo are too less for a whole 'state in state' with an own parliament and every state institutions.

Rebranding the Ahtisaari Plan to gain greater acceptance from the Spanish government? It's worth a try. I guess.

Time for Mr Feith to retire, they wont get any autonomy, or so-called special status

Analyst: “The better idea would have been to have whole Kosovo within Serbia modeled after Catalonia within Spain”

Whether or not that is a better idea is for the opinions of each, but is history. That is what Kosovo had in 1974-88. Milosevic demolished it in the blood of the 24 heroic miners and imposed 12 years of apartheid on Kosovo. When a decade of peaceful resistance inevitably turned to insurgency, he completed the act by carrying out Al Nakba on the K Albanians. So case kind of closed.

“Count” of Kosova: “Is this spin your way of trying to save face for the Serbs. However, what makes you so sure that the Albanians would buy your interpretation of Feith's idea.”

Dear “Count”, I am just a Balkanite (neither S nor A) expressing my opinion, with no interest in giving spin to anyone. It is Feith who very deliberately used the term Catalonia model, not myself; I believe he is someone who knows what he is saying when he chooses those words. I sent details of the Catalonia model; you can read it, obviously you don’t have to agree with it, but how you “interpret” it surely has some bounds, otherwise he wouldn’t have used these words.

Obviously, in expressing my personal opinion that it is a good model can’t make Albanians, or Serbs, agree to it if they don’t want. Perhaps some Albanians, like yourself, prefer Thaci to play Slobo-style games with the people in the north who obviously don’t want to be ruled by Pristina rather than engage in creative thinking along the lines of the Catalan model for example. That’s up to them. Seems to me the longer Balkan people focus on how to promote conflict with each other (like Milosevic, Tudjman etc excelled in), the longer they can be led around by the nose by colonial authorities. Feith, by contrast, seeing his time as colonial governor coming up, is perhaps now in a situation where he can begin to think more long-term about what might actually work.

Balkan federated republican

Mr, P. Feith has no authority to give any conclusion or suggestions about Kosova. He should read his job description. If that is sulutions to all problems why we steel hav problems in Catalonia.
KOSOVO IS INDEPENDENT , THERE IT ENDS . NO OTHER OPTIONS ARE NEEDED

Given that total partition at the Ibar would have the ironic effect of cutting Mitrovica off from the Serb cantons in the south, leaving them thus further isolated and weakened, this plan the EU is obviously cooking, if we can take Feith’s word for it (and he is not someone expected to be radical on this issue), is a pretty damned good one that Serbia should study and accept. For Kosovo it might hopefully also have the effect that Serbian recognition and a stable solution should mean proper independence, rather than the semi-colonial “supervised” type they have now, with the ironic effect also that maybe they could run the place themselves without Feith’s ICO.
(DimTuc, 10 September 2011 16:29)


DimTuc,

Is this spin your way of trying to save face for the Serbs. However, what makes you so sure that the Albanians would buy your interpretation of Feith's idea . Remember, it's the Serbs, not the Albanians, who think they can gain candidate status to the EU this year, even though they have been told in no uncertain terms that membership to the EU will not occur till 2019, along with the rest of the Western Balkans. Giving the Serbs false hope is simply cruel.

I hate to rain on anybodies parade but Faith came out today and said on KlanTv "I never said such thing and the only plan is Ahtisari no plus no minus"

This is just another way of the serbian political body trying to throw ideas and see If they will get accepted. Lol just like revoking recognitions.

Funny. Catalonia wants to be like Kosovo. As a Catalan, I really hope my country becomes independent in the near future. That way Catalonia will stop bailing out Spain every year with 20 billion euros. And it is the only way for Catalans to have our language officially recognized in Europe.

North of Kosovo should be like Catalonia first when south Serbia (populated by majority albanians) gets the same autonomy. That sounds more fair to me ;)

How about Northern Kosovo continue to stay within Serbia and the rest of Kosovo gain autonomy? This fool is a menace to decent society.

North Kosovo should get the same status 'srpska krajina' got in Croatia.

“We cannot tolerate a new EU candidate bringing a frozen conflict in. We cannot have both things, the candidate that is moving forward and at the same time holding northern Kosovo by its neck. The feeling is now present in certain number of EU member states,” Feith concluded.

I agree. The Kosovo Albanians have had their fun but have been a nuisance and a threat to peace stability for too long. Pressure needs to be put on them to stop their games of aggression and learn to live as peaceful people with other peace-loving people in the Balkans. They need to accept the reality that northern Kosovo is gone and will never be under their control. Because if they continue with their war games and try to impose parallel structures there, they may lose even more. :)

Mr, P. Feith has no authority to give any conclusion or suggestions about Kosova. He should read his job description. If that is sulutions to all problems why we steel hav problems in Catalonia.
KOSOVO IS INDEPENDENT , THERE IT ENDS . NO OTHER OPTIONS ARE NEEDED

Well now that’s interesting stuff, coming from Feith. Not that I like Feith; I suspect a lot of Serbs are probably more unnerved by his patrician imperial grandstanding in the “colonies,” as is evidenced by some of this above, than they are by what the K Albanians themselves say and do; and much as he has seemed to be on “their” side, I wonder if K Albanians don’t somewhat chafe silently under the “benevolent king” of their country in the “ICO.”

Anyway, introductions aside, the “Catalonia” solution may well be something everyone can grab at to get out of this frozen conflict. For Pristina it means the north remains officially part of Kosovo, for Belgrade and the northern Serbs, it is something way superior to the Ahtisaari Plan, although the authors of such a plan could probably make Pristina feel better if they could dress it as consistent with that plan.

Personally, I thought the competencies given to the autonomous Serb municipalities under the A Plan, along with their direct links to Belgrade, were pretty high, and it seems most of the Serbs south of the Ibar have learned to live with it, but I well understand why other Serbs, particularly in the north, may see it as way not good enough. Well then, let’s look at the “Catalan model”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Autonomy_of_Catalonia
For example: “The Generalitat de Catalunya is the institution in which the self-government of Catalonia is politically organised. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Generalitat and the Executive Council or Government of Catalonia. The Statute of Autonomy gives the Generalitat of Catalonia the powers which enable it to carry out the functions of self-government. These can be exclusive, concurrent and shared with the Spanish State or executives. The Generalitat holds jurisdiction in various matters of culture, education, health, justice, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments. Catalonia has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, although the Spanish government keep agents in the region for matters relating to border control, terrorism and immigration.”
It is called “autonomy” but is more like the autonomy that Kosovo itself had in 1974-88 than the usual meaning of regional or municipal autonomy. Catalonia has its own government, president, parliament, elections, the entire gamut of ministries, a judiciary, its own police force, its own flag etc. Together with the links to Belgrade already established under the A-Plan, this Catalan form of autonomy (like the late Titoist form in Koosvo) is a way of having the north a federal unit within a semi-federated state without actually calling it that.

Given that total partition at the Ibar would have the ironic effect of cutting Mitrovica off from the Serb cantons in the south, leaving them thus further isolated and weakened, this plan the EU is obviously cooking, if we can take Feith’s word for it (and he is not someone expected to be radical on this issue), is a pretty damned good one that Serbia should study and accept. For Kosovo it might hopefully also have the effect that Serbian recognition and a stable solution should mean proper independence, rather than the semi-colonial “supervised” type they have now, with the ironic effect also that maybe they could run the place themselves without Feith’s ICO.

Time for Mr Feith to retire, they wont get any autonomy, or so-called special status

"He assessed that Serbia, whose aim is to join the EU,"

What EU?? There is not going to be an EU much longer Mr.Faith. This time the "men" that mercilessly pillage God's nature and mercilessly devour His children got way too greedy and careless.(Good luck bluffing when you are broke and exhibiting fear).
Be very careful of that grave that's being dug for the Serbs that it doesn't become the grave of its diggers, or the "grave for us all".

For peace and stability,keep your evil bloody hands off of North Kosovo!

The best solution is that proposed from Serbia for Albanians.The famous Serbian invention "less then independence,more then autonomy".
This can be applied to Albanian minority in south Serbia first,and if it works can be adapted to Serbian minority in Kosova.Talk is always cheep, Serbia should lead by example.

ARE YOU BRAIN DISEASED PEOPLE AWARE THAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO IMPOSE THE RULE OF THOSE SAME TERRORISTS THAT HARVESTED THESE PEOPLES' ORGANS IN ORDER TO FUND THEIR WAR TO ETHNICALLY CLEANSE THEM ALL AND STEAL THEIR LAND?
Are you f'n people that brain dead or do you want to spill more innocent blood? YOU SCUM OF THE EARTH!!!


Mr.Faith, Serbia is not Afghanistan for you to be imposing Drug Dealing Gangsters and their clansmen mentality/religion/philosophy/codes on the local population against their will.

The KLA and the stillborn is YOUR creation--so you better look for another solution for your frankenstein engineered monsters and your stillborn's needs--and keep them faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from North Kosovo!!!Or you might have yourselves another Afghanistan like it is right now, where you have the WHOLE POPULATION other than few bought,after your "scalps".
Serbs had enough for 500 years living under Turks and their likes--now it's your time and turn to live with them,brother!--and you are not liking it,or are you??

KOSOVO should be modeled after Catalonia

Rebranding the Ahtisaari Plan to gain greater acceptance from the Spanish government? It's worth a try. I guess.

Feith! if you think that this is a good solution then why you did not offer this solution to the kosovo albanians during the status negotiation. instead of waisting in experimenting a so called kosovo ran by ganglord like Thaci.
Serbia will never give up the whole kosovo province even if it will result in losing a EU membership.

Ok, so Kosovo would become more similar to Spain and when Kosovo government will be lobbied to recognize some new country in the future it will behave like Spain's government.
By the way, "we don't want another Cyprus in the EU" applies to Kosovo as well. Or will apply in the future. That problem is behind the corner, not visible yet but it is there.

Given that total partition at the Ibar would have the ironic effect of cutting Mitrovica off from the Serb cantons in the south, leaving them thus further isolated and weakened, this plan the EU is obviously cooking, if we can take Feith’s word for it (and he is not someone expected to be radical on this issue), is a pretty damned good one that Serbia should study and accept. For Kosovo it might hopefully also have the effect that Serbian recognition and a stable solution should mean proper independence, rather than the semi-colonial “supervised” type they have now, with the ironic effect also that maybe they could run the place themselves without Feith’s ICO.
(DimTuc, 10 September 2011 16:29)


DimTuc,

Is this spin your way of trying to save face for the Serbs. However, what makes you so sure that the Albanians would buy your interpretation of Feith's idea . Remember, it's the Serbs, not the Albanians, who think they can gain candidate status to the EU this year, even though they have been told in no uncertain terms that membership to the EU will not occur till 2019, along with the rest of the Western Balkans. Giving the Serbs false hope is simply cruel.

This is only the US trying to settle a matter that has gone on for far too long and you only have to look at the US success rate to date which the word FAILURE seems to pop up very frequently. You see even in Libya the west is unsure that the “rebels” are too friendly to them – the west has only done one thing and that is the Islamists now have all the arms they need or will need. Western imbecility is still insufficient to describe their actions.
The US or EU cannot hold out for too long with this status quo in Kosovo and Feith comes out with offers that might tempt the Serbs (stay within an independent Kosovo but have autonomy).
My advice to the Serbs please stay the course as I can guarantee you that you will get everything you want plus more as the US/NATO will not lift a finger to change the current status in that region and that clown Thaci and his goat herders dressed up as police don’t have the means of taking over a bar let alone north Kosovo.
It’s all piss and wind from Washington – have a look at what its spending to “restart” the US economy; a miserable 350 billion. This is not even a spit in the ocean and I can also guarantee you that it would be handing out a trillion if it could afford it.
Serbs stay the course and do not fear as they can’t do a thing to you.

On the one hand it is good to see Feith finally discussing a serious level of autonomy, unlike the pseudo-autonomy of Ahtisaari where every decision still has to be aproved in Pristina.

But there are some problems:
- in terms of language Northern Kosovo is much more separated from Kosovo as Catalonia from Spain. About every Catalan knows Spanish while few of the Northern Kosovo Serbs do. For Kosovo Serbs Albanian is a much more difficult language as Spanish for Catalans. In addition it is a language that economically is much less attractive to learn.
- North Kosovo is much smaller. For things like higher education it has to rely on a larger entity. For many thing it is logical that that should be Serbia.
- Serbia "holding Northern Kosovo by its neck" is an insult to the Serbs living in Northern Kosovo. It raises the question how much Feith really understands of the feelings of the SErbs in Northern Kosovo.
- It seems that Feiths idea of democracy is that Serbia should influence the Serbs in Northern Kosovo. It might be a better starting point if he went to talk to them himself and took their opinion in account.

This is kind of important. Feith is the mouthpiece of Washington in the region. US might be seriously considering this, or preparing the ground for Albanian separatists' ethnic cleansing campaign against Serbs.

Sure, blame it all on Serbia. It's like a person who goes to a store and steals an ipad but claim's it's the "Man's" fault for making the thief poor. The Albanians are the cause of the issue in the North by insisting on having something they have no right too. This Feith guy is an idiot. How about arresting some Albanian criminals Peter.

I hate to rain on anybodies parade but Faith came out today and said on KlanTv "I never said such thing and the only plan is Ahtisari no plus no minus"

This is just another way of the serbian political body trying to throw ideas and see If they will get accepted. Lol just like revoking recognitions.

"Given that total partition at the Ibar would have the ironic effect of cutting Mitrovica off from the Serb cantons in the south, leaving them thus further isolated and weakened, this plan the EU is obviously cooking, if we can take Feith’s word for it (and he is not someone expected to be radical on this issue), is a pretty damned good one that Serbia should study and accept. For Kosovo it might hopefully also have the effect that Serbian recognition and a stable solution should mean proper independence, rather than the semi-colonial “supervised” type they have now, with the ironic effect also that maybe they could run the place themselves without Feith’s ICO." (DimTuc)

-- An interesting proposal to be sure, and one that I sort of like. For starters, it affirms what the international community has been hinting at for a while: a single Kosovo entity with a northern sector running virtually autonomous from Pristina (and also from Belgrade. It's also a great way to, ideally, draw a line between Belgrade and Mitrovica in that the people currently running the show there could, by simply accepting "Catalonia status" with some EULEX presence, retain their positions and, I assume, continue to profit from their positions. Who cares about transparent government when you can ensure stability? That seems to be the international approach to Kosovo.

One bit of caution I'd throw, and this is more to the possible detriment of Pristina than either Belgrade (which stands to gain) or Mitrovica (which stands to profit) is the possibility of "me too" scenarios among at least the Serbs of Novo Brdo and Strpce, not to mention the Gorani of Dragas. I assume Albanian opposition to a "Catalonia model" for the north has more to do with areas of the center and south that would want the same thing. Personally, I'm in favor of as much decentralization as can be, but that's just my opinion. What matters now is whether EULEX is serious about this offer to northern Kosovo, and more importantly, how they plan on selling the idea. But at least it seems to be what many defenders of Kosovo's sovereignty are also supporting.

Analyst: “The better idea would have been to have whole Kosovo within Serbia modeled after Catalonia within Spain”

Whether or not that is a better idea is for the opinions of each, but is history. That is what Kosovo had in 1974-88. Milosevic demolished it in the blood of the 24 heroic miners and imposed 12 years of apartheid on Kosovo. When a decade of peaceful resistance inevitably turned to insurgency, he completed the act by carrying out Al Nakba on the K Albanians. So case kind of closed.

“Count” of Kosova: “Is this spin your way of trying to save face for the Serbs. However, what makes you so sure that the Albanians would buy your interpretation of Feith's idea.”

Dear “Count”, I am just a Balkanite (neither S nor A) expressing my opinion, with no interest in giving spin to anyone. It is Feith who very deliberately used the term Catalonia model, not myself; I believe he is someone who knows what he is saying when he chooses those words. I sent details of the Catalonia model; you can read it, obviously you don’t have to agree with it, but how you “interpret” it surely has some bounds, otherwise he wouldn’t have used these words.

Obviously, in expressing my personal opinion that it is a good model can’t make Albanians, or Serbs, agree to it if they don’t want. Perhaps some Albanians, like yourself, prefer Thaci to play Slobo-style games with the people in the north who obviously don’t want to be ruled by Pristina rather than engage in creative thinking along the lines of the Catalan model for example. That’s up to them. Seems to me the longer Balkan people focus on how to promote conflict with each other (like Milosevic, Tudjman etc excelled in), the longer they can be led around by the nose by colonial authorities. Feith, by contrast, seeing his time as colonial governor coming up, is perhaps now in a situation where he can begin to think more long-term about what might actually work.

Balkan federated republican

Mr. Feith used to be against any form of autonomy for the north. His proposal for this Catalonia-scenario would be kind of interesting if it would include the enclaves of Gracanica, Strpce and some of the Serb monasteries. Not that it would solve any problem, but the good news is that it looks like Mr. Feith and the criminals he speaks for are giving in. Let's hope this is because they started realising that the truth is somewhat different from what they believed so far. I wonder what will be on offer next...

The better idea would have been to have whole Kosovo within Serbia modeled after Catalonia within Spain. Kosovo as a state is too small to stand on its own feet, everyone can see it (please don't come up comparing it to Switzerland, Monaco or similar states in Europe). The group of the few 100.000 Serbs left in Kosovo are too less for a whole 'state in state' with an own parliament and every state institutions.

Funny. Catalonia wants to be like Kosovo. As a Catalan, I really hope my country becomes independent in the near future. That way Catalonia will stop bailing out Spain every year with 20 billion euros. And it is the only way for Catalans to have our language officially recognized in Europe.