EU is facing the moment of truth as it’s trying to decide the role it will play in Kosova once UN ends its mission later this year. Kosova government have been calling for a replacement for a long time as there is deep belief that UN workers have been a crowd of corrupt and inept bureaucrats that took its time to consult New York on every matter and withered Kosova’s potential for development.

But the EU is not keen to take over. The concern seems to be the money, but EU character is also at play. To me it seems that EU shies away from any political responsibility in Kosova preferring to leave the always failing UN at the top as someone to blame. But UN in Kosova is EU in essence. Most of the funding and people come from the EU, including the very important economy pillar of UNMIK. It is top management from the EU countries that oversees such failures as KEK (the electric company), PTK (telecom), and the news-making airport. So, while with EU you hope for more direct responsibility, continuation of weak performance is not far off either. Bosnia can attest to that.

To answer Javier Solana’s and Olli Rehn’s main concern in the article, Kosova does not need policemen that would patrol the streets. No more bureaucrats either. Our own police service is doing that with the pride that only policemen anywhere in the world possess. What Kosova needs is expertise in areas such as investigators and trainers, to empower KPS and other services to stand on their feet. Most importantly, it needs people that will make the tough decisions, even if that means angering Belgrade.


Balkan Update blog has a wonderful article from Balkan Insight on how minorities in Montenegro are flexing their muscle on the independence debate. Independence of Montenegro will increase minority decision-making power within the country and hopefully put the tiny country in a faster track towards the EU. More minority rights will then come more naturally.

On a side note: the article is part of Balkan Insight, a network of reporters supported by BIRN that does some wonderful reporting in English on most Balkan countries. They are way better than any Western media that sends a reporter over for a short stay, if at all, and then parrots the deep roots of the conflict in history. From iwpr.net:

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network was created from the Balkans programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.

The original IWPR Balkan team was mandated to localise the project and make it sustainable, in the light of changing realities in the region. The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network is now a wholly independent regional partner of IWPR.

Supported by a regional hub based in Sarajevo, BIRN has members in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Romania and Bulgaria.

Balkan Insight is BIRN's main publication featuring cross-regional reporting of the key issues related to the regions development and progress in achieving European political, social and economic standards.