Kosovo presence will not stop holding of Balkans summit

TIRANA, March 16 – Leaders of the post-Yugoslavia states plus Albania will meet on Saturday for the first time in 18 years in Brdo, near the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.
EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has confirmed his participation while Spain, the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, is to send foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
The idea behind Saturday’s meeting is that the now independent countries promote the region’s integration into the EU.
“Together for European Union: The contribution of Western Balkans to European future” is the motto of the summit, jointly organized by EU member Slovenia and its neighbor Croatia, which hopes to join the EU soon.
The success of the conference is by no means assured as serious issues arising from the process of Yugoslavia’s disintegration remain to be resolved.
Kosovo is the main problem. Slovenia and Croatia are finding it hard to secure participation of both Serbia and its former province, and if either of the two fails to show up, the conference will hardly be seen as a major success.
Serbia is insisting that Kosovo must not be invited as a state. President Boris Tadic confirmed his country would not participate if “the territorial integrity of Serbia is not respected,” adding that “Kosovo Albanian leaders” could only be invited as private persons or as part of the UN administration in Kosovo, UNMIK.
Kosovo, however, is recognized as an independent state by both host countries. “We will take part only as a state,” Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said.
Slovenia’s Prime Minister Borut Pahor has been desperately trying to find a compromise to accommodate both Kosovo and Serbia in the summit.
There have been voices that Pahor has previously publicly contemplated cancelling the conference, but the summit is now definitely going ahead.
Everyone believes the Slovenian premier will find a formula to persuade Tadic to come to Brdo.
Pahor has come under strong pressure from several EU countries not to make any concession to Belgrade on Kosovo in the context of the Brdo summit. They argued it would send the wrong signal to Belgrade and encourage it to behave in an obstructive manner. Major western powers want to show Belgrade it is isolated in the region over Kosovo and that things can go on if needed without Serbia.
Another issue of protocol contest could be Macedonia’s name.
Officially, there would be no country names, only the names of politicians.
That may help to solve Macedonia’s title for the summit. Under official EU terminology, it is referred to as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. EU member Greece rejects the name Macedonia arguing that it owns the name, which denotes one of its northern provinces.
All these disputes aside, the conference may prove to be a very great help to western Balkan countries along their efforts of integration into the European Union.