Can the European Union Resolve the Life-Cycle of the Conflict in Kosovo?
been minor incidents, particularly in Northern Kosovo where the larger
populations of Kosovar Serbs live, but overall NATO (KFOR) and Kosovo’s police have kept the peace. The new State has managed to maintain
peace and has received political and practical support from the MPws.
In turn, this has brought stability to the region, particularly in the States
where Albanians live outside Albania such as in Macedonia, Serbia and
Montenegro and within Kosovo itself.
The core issue in the conflict is that Kosovo is de jure and de facto2
independent but Serbia refuses to accept its independence by blocking through Russia (and China) as Permanent Members of the UN Security
Council – the admission of Kosovo to the UN and other international
bodies. Serbia, through the UN, has brought the case of Kosovo’s independence to the International Court of Justice. This resulted in an advisory opinion that the Unilateral Declaration of Independence did not
violate international law (ICJ 2010: 122). Therefore, aside from the fact
that it is not able to enter into official relationships with the States that
have yet not recognised it, Kosovo complies with the Montevideo criteria of statehood.
Serbia claims that Kosovo is part of Serbia but in practice there has been
no trace of Serbian authority in Kosovo since 1999. However, in January
2013 Serbia’s Prime Minster (PM) Ivica Dačić declared that Serbia could
not afford to, “keep its head in the sand” and “Serbian sovereignty over
Kosovo is practically non-existent” (Robinson 2013). Serbia is refusing
to recognise Kosovo and is using this as a powerful tool in negotiations
De Jure is defined as ‘by force of law’, or ‘legally’; de facto means ‘concerning the
facts’, or ‘in reality’.
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