All joking aside, I think nihil is correct and I was very surprised that the EU has proposed this. How they will get around the very thorny issue of proposing membership to Balkan states while continuing to refuse longstanding candidates such as Turkey is questionable. It is also questionable at this junction how we can get these people to cool off and live with each other amicably to get development under way and introduce opportunity.
I stick by my conclusion that any talk of an independent Kosovo has to be thrown out the window. Autonomy, yes, but an independent nation of Kosovo will not, IMHO, fly. Greek, Romanian and I believe Bulgarian officials have already stated that they oppose any furthur changing of borders in the region. The mess started with a revokation of Kosovar autonomy, lets see if we can arrange it so both parties can be happy with a return of autonomy, and a return of refugees. Autonomy has to come at the price of no Yugo army or police in Kosovo, as this can only lead inevitably to furthur friction. I still dont know about the KLA, but given Gustave's points in earlier posts, it may not be all that bad. But then again, is there a KLA left?
One additional plus to the EU plan: it will help bring the Balkans back into the Western fold and mitigate Russian influence there. The Russians have historically tried to secure a Medditeranean sphere of influence and I believe it is still imperative that the West keep them out of the "European Sea." |
