Priceless
The initialing of the much-negotiated agreement between Kosovo and Serbia is certainly a source for celebration, though of course for Americans it is overshadowed by the capture in Watertown, Massachusetts of a suspect in the Boston marathon bombings. The Tanjug photo of Catherine Ashton looking like a stern schoolteacher with her two unruly but subdued pupils, Prime Ministers Dacic and Thaci, is priceless.
It is impossible to give even a preliminary assessment of the agreement without a text. For the moment, journalistic commentary focuses on who got who to change what. That’s not very interesting to me, though I understand why it interests politicians who have to face the voters. The key questions are the balance in the agreement and the extent to which it can be implemented in a straightforward way. I can’t respond on either issue without a complete text.
Nor is the deal quite done, yet. Initialing froze the text, but as I understand the process Ashton still expects the two sides to confirm their agreement. They will. It is not clear to me whether there is to be a formal signing or not. I imagine Thaci would want one and Dacic not, since it would represent one more step on the way to Serbia acknowledging Kosovo’s statehood.
Serbia is already well down that path. Every time the parties meet, or reach an agreement, Belgrade is implicitly acknowledging that Thaci is the legitimate representative of democratically validated institutions. What Serbia has not acknowledged is Kosovo’s sovereignty, even if the integrated border management inches in that direction. Serbian President Nikolic says it’s the best that could be done and reiterates that Serbia will not allow Kosovo into the UN or recognize it. A close examination of the agreement text is needed to see if there has been any further movement in that direction.
I’ve got colleagues who hail from Kosovo and Serbia working on blogposts about the domestic implications in each of the agreement. Thaci, who has been criticized in Kosovo for knuckling under to American and European pressure, will likely still gain a bit if Kosovars like the substance of the agreement. Dacic has to hope that whatever he gave is more than compensated for by getting a date for EU accession negotiations. That is not a hard test to pass so far as I am concerned, but I am not a typical Serbian voter.
One thing should be clear: Kosovo should likewise move ahead on the path to the EU, albeit several steps behind Serbia. That means a date for negotiation of a Stabilization and Association Agreement as well as expeditious movement on the Schengen visa waiver.
I assume none of these important side deals is written in the agreement, which is meant to bind Belgrade and Pristina, not Brussels. But let’s not kid ourselves: what Brussels had on offer is vital to getting this done and cannot be reneged on.
The text please. Then we’ll really have something to write about.
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Something else that was probably priceless was pushing Vucic to participate in the negotiations. His supporters are now rushing to support the agreement as the best that was possible under the conditions, and it’s only thanks to Vucic’s strong and principled role that Dacic didn’t give even more away, leaving the Serbs of Kosovo totally at the mercy of vengeful Albanians.
The Democratic Party’s new chairman in Belgrade is acting the role of small-time politician to the hilt – his party, he says, will only vote for the agreement in parliament if the government comes out and admits it recognized Kosovo’s independence with the deal.
At the same time, in Prishtina, the major opposition party, which has been willing to bring Parliament’s work to a standstill for months over politics, is saying it supports the deal. VV is doing its best to reassure the Serbs that they actually got the best of the deal by attacking it, but unfortunately, the Serbs at B92 recognize the party for what it is, and remain downcast.
If Tadic signed this deal, he would be crucified. And one of the reason why nationalist came to power was perception of public that Tadic was dealing with Kosovo issue in a soft way and corruption in government mainly from DS. West could not brake Tadic on Kosovo issue as much as fragile he looked like.
Nationalist would never form a government if they did not have blessing from US and EU. Nationalist killed Djindjic, but those same nationalist who signed deal with snake, might get similar fate.
Djilas is small time politician, without any charisma nor support of people. Djindjic must be turning in his grave now.
Only Jeremic can save DS from dying out even though he was expelled from party.
If only Jeremic can save the Democrats, it may be better that they simply disband – even before his stint at the UN he was never a good fit, and his unmistakable desire to give the West the finger would not help Serbia with its EU aspirations now. As yesterday’s most promising Serbian politician, he may be disappointed at the changed situation he finds when he returns from NY. Even if the political situation hadn’t changed, the way he allowed his subordinates in the FM to take all the blame for helping young family friend Kovacevic does not suggest he is someone that his former colleagues will feel any loyalty to and welcome back.
No, it was Stefanovic who was friend of Kovacevic family, not Vuk Jeremic. Stefanovic helped Kovacevic.
Kovacevic would not have fair trial in US (due to lobbying of Senator Chuck Schumer), but what Kovacevic did was stupid and irresponsible.
When American pilot caused accident which killed 20 people in Italian Dolomites in 1999, he was next day in US.
On the Jeremic connection – that was mentioned in the papers at the time (obliquely, in comments).
On the US pilot – he was acting under US orders, and the US has Status of Force agreements with all countries where it has personnel stationed exempting its personnel from local laws.
Beating somebody half of your size and putting him in comma is act of coward (Kovacevic).
Amer, Serbian constitution does not allow extradition of Serbian citizens. Serbian consul helped Kovacevic leave US, that is job of consul to help own citizens abroad.
Killing unintentionally 20 people due to negligence and as part of game and then destroying evidence (video tape) is also act of coward but much worse than what Kovacevic did.
Regarding Jeremic, he does not have blood on his hands, nor he was involved in any of crimes in Yugoslav war. He is patriot who loves his country and doing everything what he can do for his country. He just have different opinions and those who don’t like him that is their problem. I have not heard him saying “disgusting” about any nation or spreading hate speech. Just remember what Maddie Albright said about Serbs.
“Just remember what Maddie Albright said about Serbs.” She was referring to specific persons who were disrupting a hitherto peaceful book-signing! Good grief.
Good excuse! As always! Neither they were Serbs, neither they were disgusting. They just expressed their opinions and disgust for what has been done to Serbs in Kosovo. Just imagine that somebody refers to group of people who follow Judaism as disgusting? But according to you it is acceptable to refer to Serbs as disgusting? Was it you who suggested to relocate Serbian churches from Kosovo to Serbia? How disgusting that was.