Nation
and State Building: the case of Kosovo
Interview with Pr. Labinot Greiçevci,
Executive Director of the Research Institute on
Statebuilding in KOSOVO
by Anna Dimitrova
Several months after Kosovo declared independence (17
February 2008) the future of the newly created state is
still uncertain pending on the local government and the
international missions of EU (EULEX), UN (UNMIK) and
NATO (KFOR).
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo,
adopted 9 April 2008 for entry into force 15 June 2008,
Kosovo is:
“(…) a multi-ethnic society based upon the equality
of all its citizens.
Kosovo has no official religion and is neutral on
question of religious beliefs;
Kosovo will have its own, distinct, flag, seal and
anthem, which must reflect the multi-ethnic character of
Kosovo;
The official languages of Kosovo will be Albanian and
Serbian;
Kosovo will have the right to negotiate and conclude
international agreements, including the right to seek
membership in international organizations;
Kosovo will have no territorial claims against and will
not seek union with another State or part of any State
(…)”
The youngest state still has a lot of challenges to meet,
mostly related to its urgent integration in some
international and European economic organisations
indispensable for its economic take off and its
institutional development. Ahead in the political agenda
are also the processes of nation and state building that
the government of the Republic of Kosovo with the
support of some international organizations and, in
particular the UN, is about to put into place.
Labinot Greiçevci: In fact,
lot of things have changed in Kosovo in the last 4
months after the declaration of independence. For
instance, we have a new reality which means the newest
State in the world (The Republic of Kosovo) which has
been recognized by more than 40 countries8 including
here USA, major EU states, Canada and all G7 members.
The process of international recognition is moving
forward in a very positive way. Moreover, a new
Constitution has entered into force two days ago. The
new constitution reflects the new reality in Kosovo,
which means that Kosovo belongs to its citizens
independently from their ethnic or religious background.
Furthermore, Kosovo’s Government has compiled and
Kosovo’s parliament has approved more than 40 new laws
which are related to the new structures and institutions
of Kosovo’s statehood, including the laws that are
related to the decentralization and minority rights and
their religious institutions and heritage. The new
Constitution and the 40 laws that have been passed on
are in a full compliance with Ahtisaari’s proposal for
Kosovo’s future status. Similarly, Kosovo has its new
anthem, flag and its arms and in all these features its
multi-ethnic character is reflected as confirmed by the
international community that is present in Kosovo.
Furthermore, Kosovo’s Government has approved its
economic policies for a mid-term period aimed at
softening the employment and the poverty in Kosovo. In
this respect, I have to mention that in the first part
of July 2008 a new international donor’s conference for
Kosovo will take place in Brussels which will facilitate
the economic development of the state. Similarly,
Kosovo’s Government has approved in cooperation with the
European Commission, the European Partnership Plan for
the period 2008-2010 which describes in details the
obligations of Kosovo’s Government toward the processes
of European integration. There are still some problems
in the northern part of Kosovo which are notably
supported by the politics of the past in Belgrade, but
in the near future this problem will be solved through
the cooperation of Kosovo’s Government with
international community and the local population of that
inseparable part of the Republic of Kosovo.
Labinot Greiçevci: No, I don’t think so. There are several reasons that Kosovo
will not have any implications in the fate of Bosnia and
any other cases as well. First and foremost, Kosovo and
‘Republika Srpska’ differ in many ways, the main
difference being that while in Kosovo there was a try to
do a genocide against one ethnicity (in this case the
Albanians), the ‘Republika Srpska’ is a product of the
genocide. Before the Dayton agreement ‘Republika Srpska’
never existed, while the Dayton agreement legitimized to
some extent the genocide that has been done against the
Bosnians. Moreover, Kosovo is a unique or ‘sui generis’
case and this was recognized by the majority of the
international community including here the Special Envoy
of the Secretary General of the UN (Marti Ahtisaari).
Consequently, this means that this fact was also
recognized by the Secretary General of the UN.
Furthermore, Bosnia and Herzegovina has signed the SAA
with the EU and this means that Bosnia and Herzegovina
is moving forward towards its European Integration and
not to any ‘new Dayton or any new division’. The EU
foreign policy needs to be applauded on this as well.
Labinot Greiçevci: In fact,
I have to re-say that Kosovo has been recognized by more
than 40 countries who are UN members and this confirms
that Russia’s position is more or less a way of
expressing their frustrations from not having enough
force to stop the independence of Kosovo. Moreover, I
think that Russia is trying through Kosovo to point out
that she is back in the international politics, but I
don’t think they did it yet. Similarly, I don’t think
that someone could quote the norms and rules of the
international law, when this someone does not respect
them (I am having in regard here, the Chechen problem
and the problems with the provinces in Georgia). Thus,
to some extent, this claim is immoral. On the other side,
recently, we had a new report on Kosovo of the Secretary
General of UN that opens the way for the new EU mission
and for a smooth exit of UNMIK from Kosovo. I think that
this new report creates enough legal bases for the new
EU mission in Kosovo, even though that some delays may
occur.
Labinot Greiçevci: I think
that new report of the UN Secretary General for the
re-configuration of UNMIK opens new perspectives for
Kosovo. Thus, the UNMIK mission will be phased out and
then EU mission will enter into force. It will take some
time until October or at latest till the end of this
year, but from now and on, I don’t see any legal problem
for the new EU mission on the rule of law in Kosovo. The
main reason behind this delay is the stated veto of the
Russia in the Security Council. If we had an approval of
Ahtisaari’s proposal from the Security Council the new
way forward for Kosovo would be much easier. Nonetheless,
the Russian veto could not stop the progress of Kosovo
and the whole region of the Western Balkans. They
reached to delay it for couple of months, but they could
not stop it. I think that would be much better for the
Russia to join the Western democracies in their positive
and progressive policies towards the Western Balkans and
not to obstruct it. The way forward of Kosovo and the
whole Western Balkan countries has been opened and no
one can stop their European future. It is much better to
join it than to try to stop it without any result.
Labinot Greiçevci: I think
that there is no black and white answer to this
question. I will divide my answer as following. I can
say that the UNMIK and the international community were
quite successful in the first phase of state-building in
Kosovo. Thus, the UNMIK (with the help of Kosovo people)
was quite successful in the reconstruction process of
Kosovo in the immediate post-war period and in re-establishing
security in general. But, this can not be said for the
second phase of state-building. I consider that the
second phase has to do with institution-building and
economic development. While on the issue of
institution-building, international community was quite
successful by helping Kosovars to build their democratic
institutions through fair and democratic elections, on
the issue of economic development they have failed.
Moreover, there is still a need for further progress in
the field of the rule of law in Kosovo. Similarly,
Kosovo remained a poor country, with high unemployment
was and largely spread poverty. But, the international
community understood that the time came to move on to
the third phase of state-building which started with the
Declaration of Independence and which is being
implemented in a day-to-day life till the moment. Thus,
I could sum-up that Kosovo in some aspects reached the
third-phase of state-building but having in regard the
inefficiency of the UNMIK in some fields (such as the
rule of law and the economic development) there is a
need to address still some of the issues of the second
phase of state-building. But, I think that with the new
EU mission in Kosovo and with the help and support of
the international community, Kosovo will very soon be a
viable and self-sustaining state. Thus we will move onto
the end of the process of state-building in Kosovo.
Labinot Greiçevci: I think
that the current priorities of Kosovo’s foreign policy
are mainly three:
1) Work and progress on the massive international
recognition of Kosovo’s statehood, including here the
accession of Kosovo to different international political,
economic and cultural organizations.
2) Policies and activities in stimulating new financial
and economic foreign investments in Kosovo.
3) European Integration processes and NATO accession in
the mid and long-term future.
Labinot Greiçevci: There
are several priorities in the domestic policy, but I
would list three, which I think stay very highly in
Kosovo’s domestic policy:
1. Full integration of the Serbian minority in Kosovo’s
public life and institutions. Even though there are two
ministers in the Kosovo Government, the one belonging to
the Serb minority and the other to the Turkish minority,
there is still a need for work on this field. Moreover
with the new Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, the
Serbian language will be one of the official languages
in Kosovo (equated to the Albanian language) despite the
fact that the Serbs constitute only 8% of the whole
population in Kosovo. Moreover, with the new
Constitution of the Republic Kosovo the Serb minority,
as well as the other minorities, will have 20 reserved
seats in the Kosovo Parliament. This illustrates the
generosity of the majority towards the minority, but in
order to integrate the Serb community much better in
Kosovo’s public life, the Kosovo Government is keeping
this issue very high in its agenda.
2. Another priority is the economic development of
Kosovo. Kosovo faced traumatic and negative trends on
its economic development during the 1990’s. Similarly,
in the last 9 years, Kosovo witnessed a very low
economic development and there is a lot of work further
on this. The Kosovo Government, as I mentioned above,
prepared its strategy and the international donor’s
conference will be a further stimulus to move forward.
3. Similarly, the education is another priority for the
Kosovo Government. There are some policies and efforts
on stabilizing and increasing the quality of the higher
education system and this will be followed up by further
improvements. In short, these are some of the main
priorities of the Kosovo Government in the domestic
policy. The better education will facilitate the project
of the society of citizens in Kosovo. I think that this
would be possible in the ‘New Kosovo’.
Labinot Greiçevci is Executive Director of the
Research Institute on Statebuilding in Kosovo and
Lecturer in Political Science and European Studies at
the University of Business and Technology (UBT) in in
Pristina.
Anna Dimitrova is sociologist, a guest lecturer
at the European Institute of Advanced International
Studies (IEHEI) in Nice and the UBT, Pristina, and an
associate professor at the European Centre of
International Management (IEMI) in Paris.
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