Finding the right balance for Kosovo

"You know the hotel Priötina? Drive past it, straight on and when you get to the end of the road you will see a white building. That’s us." The capital of Kosovo is a pretty small place but still, you do need precise instructions for locating the office of what is about to become one of the most ambitious experiments ever in EU foreign policy.

At some point next year it is more than likely that Kosovo, technically part of Serbia, will gain its independence. But a major new EU mission is being planned in the white house, which will have serious powers and will play a major role in running the new state for many years to come.

The future of Kosovo has long been disputed between its 1.8 million or so ethnic Albanians and Serbia, which says it will never accept the independence they demand.

The white house is easy to find, but there is no flag, no sign on the door and no guard. The door is open and you have to climb the stairs to find someone. From such an acorn many hope that a mighty EU oak tree is to grow.

The man in charge is Torbjörn Sohlström, a 32-year-old Swedish diplomat. He was appointed last December as the personal representative of the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Now he has been given a new role, which is to lead the preparation team for what is being called the International Civilian Office (ICO).

For now the ICO team answers to Solana and is funded to the tune of €890,000 by his office. All but one of its current ten-strong staff are from EU countries. The other is from the US.

Even some of the most well informed people in Kosovo have not yet heard of the ICO. For the moment it is keeping a low profile. Soon, however, it will announce plans for the major new mission to succeed the United Nations, which has been running this place since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999. According to Sohlström, in many crucial respects it will resemble the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia.

For now the details of exactly how it will look remain to be worked out, in part because the world is waiting for Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president and UN Kosovo negotiator to announce his plan for the future of the province. With a referendum on a new Serbian constitution to be held this weekend (28-29 October) and elections to follow, perhaps in December, the original intention of settling the Kosovo issue by the end of the year looks unrealistic, but it is unlikely to slip too many months into next year.

At that point the UN mission will be phased out and powers transferred to Kosovo’s elected authorities. But it is widely expected that Ahtisaari’s plan will include conditions on Kosovo’s sovereignty. This is where the ICO and the EU come into the picture.

According to Sohlström the head of the new mission will be "double-hatted" like in Bosnia. That means that the man or woman appointed to be what is being termed the International Civilian Representative will head the ICO and, at the same time, be the EU’s special representative in the country. The ICO itself will technically not be an EU body, so as to enable others, such as the US to participate. At the same time the EU will run a major new mission helping to oversee the rule of law. The current NATO-led force will remain, as will the OSCE. The European Commission will maintain its own office and that will take over the aid distribution functions currently managed by the European Agency for Reconstruction.

As befits the delicate political situation here Solhström is keen to play down the powers of the new International Civilian Representative, stressing that Kosovars will be running their country. He says: "We don’t want a situation where the international community has to intervene very often." But it is also clear that real power will be built into the final status settlement.

Solhström says he expects that the new mission head will be able to intervene in questions relating to key areas, for example, "decentralisation, religious and cultural heritage, minority rights and security." In other words, in everything that matters in this divided land.

While the EU is making its plans so are Kosovo’s minority Serbs, especially in the north of the country. There they are making plans for effective secession from an independent Kosovo. Exactly what happens then will depend, says Solhström, on the level of support they get from Serbia, but he is confident that, in the long run, Serbia will recognise the new reality here.

"It is difficult to believe," he says, "that Serbia would not like, at some stage, to move forward on to the Euro-Atlantic integration track and it won’t to be able to do so by actively undermining the settlement."

"You know the hotel Priötina? Drive past it, straight on and when you get to the end of the road you will see a white building. That’s us." The capital of Kosovo is a pretty small place but still, you do need precise instructions for locating the office of what is about to become one of the most ambitious experiments ever in EU foreign policy.