Whe situation in northern Kosovo is a dangerous escalation that the West must take seriously. Troops on alert, road blockades, closed border crossings – tensions like this have not been seen for a long time, despite the latent instability that has permeated the region since the war more than twenty years ago.
Because of the conflict in Ukraine, many in Germany have forgotten that the war did not only return to Europe this year. The first powder keg to catch fire after the Wall came down was the former Yugoslavia.
readiness for escalation
As is well known, the current conflict has a complicated history that could not be solved either by NATO intervention or by Kosovo’s declaration of independence. To this day, Serbia does not recognize the secession of its former southern province; the government in Prishtina wants to integrate the Serb-dominated north of the country into its state.
What is striking about the development of the past few weeks is the willingness to escalate on both sides. The Serbian President is now even heating up the conflict militarily. The Kosovan prime minister, on the other hand, was so uncompromising in the recent dispute over license plates, which is important for the question of sovereignty, that he angered the EU.
Brussels and Washington have far more direct influence in the Balkans than in Ukraine. They range from the KFOR protection force to the EU enlargement process. It should therefore be possible in principle to get the situation under control again this time. Neither Serbia nor Kosovo can have an interest in violence or serious setbacks in their relations with the West.
This does not apply to Moscow, which is demonstratively taking the Serbian side. For this reason alone, it is so urgently necessary for the Europeans to pay more attention to the Balkans again.
