A reader writes:

I have been hoping for your comment on the recent move by EULEX concerning the border between Kosovo and Serbia which seems to have equally upset both sides.

I think he means this:

The EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo and Serbia have signed the policing protocol, despite strong opposition from the government in Pristina.

EULEX confirmed on Friday that it had signed the controversial agreement with Serbia’s Interior Ministry which will allow for the exchange of information on cross-border crime.

Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci had earlier claimed that the protocol would undermine their country’s sovereignty and stated that negotiations on the issue were ‘closed’.

The diplomatic trick in such utterly messy situations as this Kosovo/Serbia one is to find a crafty way to draft a text which allows useful things to happen but does not cut across key issues of law and principle or otherwise compromise either side’s basic positions. Thus here:

  • EULEX is not allowed by the EU (since EU member states can not agree on the status of Kosovo/Kosova – is it independent or not?) to take a view on Kosovo’s international status.
  • The Kosovars insist that Kosova/Kosovo is independent across the whole of its territory.
  • Belgrade insists that none of Kosovo is independent.

So to achieve substantive police cooperation across the ‘border’, these utterly incompatible positions have to be finessed.

Here is the Serbia view:

"The most important point is that the agreement is to be signed with EULEX, not the Kosovo institutions, which enables the Serbian government to clearly confirm that it does not recognize them,” Bogdanovi