Has the EU bitten off more than it can chew in the Balkans?
Alistair Burnett writes:
The World Tonight's Paul Moss has been in the Balkans in the past few weeks to assess the challenge facing the European Union's attempts at nation-building in Bosnia and the disputed territory of Kosovo.
In Kosovo, the EU's most ambitious mission yet - known as EULEX - is attempting to build up the rule of law in a region where there is little tradition of respect for a European-style legal system as opposed to brute force, and where organised crime and corruption are recognised to be endemic. The EU is also attempting to do this in a situation where the international legitimacy of the state they are working in is disputed. (Paul's article about this is .)
Eighteen months ago, Kosovo, backed by the US, Britain and some others, unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, but this was opposed by Belgrade, with support from Russia and some EU members, led by Spain. This means the law and justice mission the EU has set itself - which is already pretty ambitous - is efffectively helping build the institutions of an independent Kosovo, which not all members of the EU have recognised.
In Bosnia, the EU has a High Representative - nicknamed by some 'the Viceroy' - who is charged with overseeing the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement that brought an end to the war in 1990s which killed around 100,000 people, and with trying to bring the formerly warring parties - the Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, closer together. Since 1995, the country has been made up of two disparate parts, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic. But the EU's efforts have run into difficulties because political leaders in both parts of the country are challenging the authority of the EU and playing the nationalist card, and there are doubts as to whether the EU has the commitment to do more than try to manage the status quo.
But many observers believe something will have to give. Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo all want to join the EU, and officially the EU says it wants them to join at the same time -though quite when is not clear. But unless the two parts of Bosnia agree to integrate more closely and unless Serbia and the Albanian majority in Kosovo can come to terms on the future of the territory, which doesn't look likely at the moment, that objective looks difficult to achieve.
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