EU seeks own role, independent of US
The meeting of EU’s foreign ministers in Portugal last weekend was expectedly devoid of spectacular news, but it confirmed a tendency in the EU since the failure of Marti Ahtisaari’s plan in the UN Security Council: an attempt to create a European policy towards Kosovo which would be independent from the influence and decisions of Washington.
(Tanjug News Agency) Monday, September 10, 2007
The US State Department attempted to repeat the same scenario which took place before the last Gymnich meeting at the end of March, in Bremen, Germany.
Just before that meeting, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns for the first time revealed Washington's support for the independence of Kosovo and thus tried to have a decisive impact on EU members to accept Ahtisaari's plan as a basis for a new Security Council resolution.
Burns' plan failed, since several countries expressed in Bremen their serious concerns about Ahtisaari's proposals.
This time around, it was US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Walker who took the scene by officially announcing that the US were ready to unilaterally recognize an independent Kosovo.
Given at a moment in which the heads of diplomacy of the 27 were gathering in Portugal to discuss Kosovo, such a statement was clearly a premeditated attempt to put pressure on the EU.
The first reactions of the ministers, however, lead to think that the new American initiative will not even receive a majority, let alone a unanimous European support.
Conscious of the huge risks for the security and common policy of the EU which would be brought by the recognition of unilateral moves, the ministers tried to clearly back away from such a scenario.
By insisting on the key role of the EU, an independent and common policy, some ministerssclearly sent a signal to Washington that they do not want to become hostages of decisions taken "outside of Europe".
Countries which are already opposed to the Ahtisaari plan - such as Greece, Spain, Romania, Cyprus and Slovakia - were joined by those countries which policy is based on the respect of multilateralism in international relations.
If the EU wants to keep its common foreign policy, it is clear that any recognition of a unilateral proclamation of independence of Kosovo could not be taken into consideration.
Conscious of that fact, Washington released its "trial balloon" early enough for a debate to take place before the artificial "final deadline" of December 10, and thus pave the way for the US to put pressure on those "unwilling" to join the "coalition of the willing" states ready to recognize the independence of Kosovo.
The policy of building up a "critical mass" of states ready for unilateral moves is, however, totally contrary to the principles of common EU policy.
This is something of which are well aware those who care the most about a common European policy - such as Germany - but also states of the region which would lose the most by an imposed, illegal and extremely dangerous set of actions.
