Kosovo and the re-Balkanisation of Europe

Spanish Historian Francisco Veiga comments on the reactions of the EU states to Kosovo's declaration of independence: "What could have been an exercise in the fine art of diplomacy on the path to European integration has turned into a clumsy tug of war between hegemonial powers. This scenario reminds one all too painfully of the game played out between the great powers at the beginning of the 20th century, which also included the creation of a new state - Panama in 1903, which until then had been Columbian territory and was created with the aim of giving the US control over the canal - to serve US interests. ... The Kosovo issue also leaves the EU looking like a bunch of hegemonial powers that in the course of eastwards expansion are relaxing the membership criteria and thus causing confusion about which basic elements [the EU] is to consist of in future. Nation states based on ethnic criteria?" If so, the author warns, we should get used to the idea of a Europe of "great nations", "including a Greater Albania, a Greater Serbia and a Greater Bulgaria. This would mean renouncing the idea of a Europe of federal states."

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