Political uncertainty, concern lingers over Kosovo

EU Council of Ministers plans to discuss the political crisis in Serbia including the early parliamentary elections scheduled for May 11. Ministers will aslo talk about problems with the EU's unilateral mission to Kosovo, the EULEX, that Serbs in Kosovo view as the occupying force because it lacks legality and any international legitimacy.

Kosovo Serb leader Rada Trajkovic said that the political crisis in Belgrade will make the position of the Serbs in the province more difficult because "now Serbs who live in Kosovo will not have an address to go to in Belgrade."

"Still, a policy that was not united and that strategically differed could not have survived. Such policy confused the international community,” Trajkovic said noting that the Kosovo Serbs situation is more precarious because a political body representing them has not been formed.

However, Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said that the collapse of the government and the early elections in Serbiawill not affect implementation of Serbia's policy in Kosovo. Samardzic said that Serbs in Kosovo need not worry about the early elections saying that the current government will perform its duties as before.

Serbian Minister of Defence Dragan Sutanovac said that isolating Serbia from the EU will preclude flow of funds into the coutntry and make defense of Kosovo extremely hard.

"If we do not have the possibility of access to European funds, we will be unable to maintain stability in Serbia proper let alone in Kosovo. It is naïve thinking that, by stopping the train or taking over a checkpoint, we are stabilizing the country or realizing some influence in Kosovo," said Sutanovac.

Internationally, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero repeated that his government would never recognize the unilateral proclamation of independence of Kosovo, nor would support its EU membership.

According to Zapatero, unilateral proclamation of independence by Kosovo was not a solution to the region, but rather, increases tensions in it.

President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus fears that Kosovo's independence "will be a very good example for other parts of countries that are not happy with what is going on around them. A domino effect -- let's put it that way. So this is for me a very, very serious issue."

Klaus declined to name specific examples of regions in Europe that could be emboldened to follow Kosovo's lead.

"I am... afraid that there are some countries where it's just the opposite, a bigger country has a minority somewhere and wants to create a bigger original 'mother country' as it's sometimes called. And that's for me a problem because that could destabilize the situation in Europe," said Klaus in an interview for the Wall Street Journal.