Kosovo - What is to be done by the EU? - Part 2

Sadly, it took no great foresight - see post of 30 November 2007 - to predict what was going to happen over Kosovo's declaration of independence - disunity in European Foreign and Security policy, with Spain, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania showing no sign of wanting to recognise the independence of Kosovo.

The emerging crisis over Kosovo has only served to highlight the weakness of the EU as an entity.

A strong confident EU would not have allowed itself to be buffeted by Russian and American policy and have used its power and influence - and attraction, since Serbia and Kosovo both want to join the EU - to implement a European solution accepted by both parties.

And there is still no credible European strategy to manage the regional risks which may follow from Kosovar independence - possible destabilisation of Macedonia, which narrowly avoided civil war in 2001, the rise of irredentism in Republika Srpska, one of the key players in the Yugoslav tragedy of the 1990s and the creation of a new entity for which there is no transition plan to economic self-sufficiency based on a thriving private sector.