On Friday 31 August, the EU foreign affairs ministers appeared cautious, indeed concerned, at their Gymnich-format Council in Vienna as regards a change of borders as part of an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo.
Although European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn had last week implied that all options were on the table (see EUROPE 12082), he warned this time that a solution would be accepted by Europe and the international community only if it contributed to "more stability" throughout the region.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini also underlined the European red lines. She thus stated that the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia would be supported if it is "in line with international law and the acquis communautaire". "You know the EU's history very well, based on overcoming and preventing any idea of ethnically cleansed states. I hope this reassures all those who are concerned about the ideas going around" at the moment, she said.
Indeed, when they arrived at the Gymnich, several ministers expressed concern at a possible territorial modification as part of an agreement. Finland's minister, Timo Soini, said it was a "very complicated" question. "We must be very careful and not create new problems", he warned. He refused to give "the final word", while saying that "this could be a bit risky, if it is not properly prepared".
Risks of ethnic conflicts
Luxembourg's minister, Jean Asselborn, warned "on principle" about an exchange of territories. "This can have very negative consequences for the countries of this region and great care must be taken", he said.
"There is a great deal of reservation about agreements based on a sort of ethnic delimiting of territories. Europe has not been built for culturally and ethnically monolithically homogenous entities. It has been built to help different peoples live together", Spain's minister, Josep Borrell i Fontelles, said, adding that "solutions through a sort of ethnic adaptation of the territory" raised "many logical misgivings".
Their German colleague, Heiko Maas, expressed the same concern. "We do not consider it an objective to conduct a discussion on an exchange of territories between Kosovo and Serbia", he said. "This could open up old wounds with the people and this is why we are very sceptical on this point", he added.
Austria's minister, Karin Kneissl, meanwhile drew a parallel with the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and with the decolonisation of Africa. "I am not going to anticipate the intentions (of the Serbian and Kosovan presidents, who are meeting in Brussels on 7 September), but I remember the attitude, for example, that the African states had after decolonisation in the '60s. It was clearly decided (...) not to start discussing border changes because afterwards Pandora's boxes would have been opened on the African continent", she said.
Letting the two parties negotiate
Belgium's minister, Didier Reynders, seemed more open. In his view, it is up to Belgrade and Pristina to hold discussions "to see what the elements of an agreement are". "It is not up to the EU to give guidance on the content", he said, stating that the negotiation should be between the two countries and that the EU would do its utmost to facilitate this. "There now needs to be an agreement between the two parties for the Serbian side to be able to recognise Kosovo and for the two countries to progress towards the EU", he added.
Five EU member states (Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Slovakia) do not recognise the independence of Kosovo. According to Romania's minister, Teodor Meleșcanu, "mutual understanding" between Pristina and Belgrade "would also greatly help the other countries that do not recognise Kosovo reach a definitive decision on this".
Mogherini meanwhile simply reiterated that the negotiations were "difficult", while saying she hoped they might finish before the end of the European Commission's mandate at the end of October 2019. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Pascal Hansens)