A step in the right direction

So Dačić and Thaçi have met in Lady Ashton’s office in Brussels.  The world has barely noticed.  That’s the good news.  While their domestic oppositions may criticize the two prime ministers (of Serbia and Kosovo, respectively) for “giving in” to each other, no one else thinks this meeting is really a big deal. They may not have shaken hands, but they have taken a quiet step towards normalizing relations.

That is what the European Union has rightly insisted on.  Ashton deserves credit for pulling this meeting off, so far as I know as a surprise.  I find myself in comfortable agreement with my professor colleagues Ognjen Pribićević and Predrag Simić, former Serbian ambassadors in Berlin and Paris respectively.  The meeting is important symbolically and will reduce the tension between Belgrade and Brussels.  There is still a long road ahead, at the end of which Serbia will have to choose between the EU and Kosovo.  This is a first step in the right direction.

The question is whether there is more in than that.  I suspect so.  The EU has made it clear in recent days that Serbia cannot expect to hold on to part of Kosovo.  Dačić has implicitly, if not explicitly, accepted this EU condition in meeting with Thaçi, whose commitment to Kosovo’s territorial integrity is not to be doubted.  President Nikolić and Aleksander Vučić, defense and deputy prime minister, must be enjoying putting their coalition partner Dačić out front on an issue that has little upside in Serbian politics.

What did Thaçi give?  Implicitly if not explicitly he has I trust agreed to discuss north Kosovo with Belgrade.  This is very much the right thing to do.  There can be no resolution of the situation there without cooperation from Belgrade in the reintegration process, which will have to be carefully planned and implemented.  But there are those in Pristina who prefer to use north Kosovo has a bludgeon rather than get it resolved, so Thaçi will no doubt get some flak for moving ahead.

I trust Washington contributed something to this effort, if only encouraging Thaçi.  I suspect it may also have had a hand in the strange high-profile visit of Clint Williamson to Belgrade earlier this week.  He is the American the EU has named to lead an investigation of crimes against Serbs, including alleged involvement of Thaçi.  That enabled the Belgrade’s political leaders to pose as protectors of the Serbs just before the meeting with Thaçi.

Kosovo and Serbia still have a long way to go.  It is my hope that they can develop the habit of helping each other get over the bumps in the road.  That will require a lot more effort from both Brussels and Washington, both of which should be gratified to see that their tough stance on partition has bent Belgrade in the right direction.