Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-07-07-Speech-3-405"
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"en.20100707.27.3-405"2
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"Mr President, I think the report on Kosovo is very good but what I want to talk about is that the broad thrust of European policy towards the Western Balkans has long been the establishment of democracy and the promotion of stability. There are cases where the two do not coincide, where stability is actually the enemy of democracy because the status quo, though oppressive, guarantees stability in the short-term.
For a long time, this was the case with Yugoslavia in general, and Kosovo in particular. There was a general assumption that, even while Yugoslavia was far from being a democracy, it was best to overlook the flaws because the alternatives were worse. With Kosovo, the opposite proved to be true. The treatment of the Albanian population by the Serbian authorities became intolerable, and an uprising followed.
The outcome was limited Western intervention, then the reluctant acceptance of the proposition that the people of Kosovo would never again accept rule by Belgrade. If Serbia were to reassert its power over Kosovo, the result would be more stability, and independent status followed. But that can only be a first step. Serbia has still to accept the loss of territory, which is painful. Kosovo has itself begun the process of constructing democracy, but this will take time to mature, which is hardly surprising given the traumatic experience of its population, but neither democracy nor stability is helped by the refusal to recognise the independence of Kosovo. Recognition has to be the way forward."@en1
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