EU may ignore US over freeze on Serbian assets

Date: 04/06/1998

By Mark Turner

EU FOREIGN ministers could push ahead next week with a freeze on Serbian assets and a ban on future investments in the country even without US approval, following reports of growing violence in the disputed Kosovo province.

The move, which will depend on the outcome of tomorrow's (5 June) peace talks and developments in the region, would mark a new European assertiveness on its south-eastern flank after a decade of indecision.

It would also silence growing criticism that the EU is playing a permanent second fiddle to Washington on its own continent.

If the Union does decide to act, it would not come a moment too soon for the Kosovo Albanians' leader Ibrahim Rugova, who appealed for help this week after Serb forces sealed off the province's western borders.

Dozens of people have been killed in recent skirmishes, and thousands of ethnic Albanians are attempting to flee the violence, heightening fears of a destabilising refugee crisis.

Current Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic first revoked the region's substantial powers of self-government in 1991, sparking a chain of events which eventually led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Over the past two months, the Contact Group of large European powers and the United States has called for an investment ban and asset freeze in response to Belgrade's refusal to grant autonomy to Kosovo.

But following a new peace initiative instigated by US special envoy Richard Holbrooke, the US put both measures on ice, with the EU following suit.

A growing number of Europeans, however, see the talks as little more than a smokescreen behind which Milosevic continues to assert dominance over the region.

A new and highly critical analysis by Brussels-based think-tank the International Crisis Group says the US diplomatic mission has proved a “godsend” for Milosevic. “By agreeing to meet Rugova and apparently nothing else, Milosevic has parried a half-hearted threat by the Contact Group countries to impose new economic sanctions,” it claims.

The Kosovo dialogue has also diverted international attention away from another power struggle in neighbouring Montenegro.

The election victory this week of President Milo Djukanovic over Milosevic-supporter Momir Bulatovic is bound to be followed by desperate political manoeuvring as the republic attempts to distance itself from Serbian influence.

EU foreign ministers may authorise new trade preferences for Montenegro when they meet on Monday (8 June), but it is still unclear how they can do this without, in effect, recognising Montenegrin independence.

UK insiders insist there are a wide range of opinions on all these issues, with London at the tougher end of the scale but by no means the toughest.

France, by contrast, remains unconvinced that a hard line from Brussels would improve matters.