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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 10/04
Reversing the Decline in the Balkans: Recommendations for Western Policy
March 2004
Abstract
A group of sixteen people deeply involved in Balkan issues met in early March 2004 to review the situation in Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. They argued that the international community has grown complacent in the Balkans and the area is drifting dangerously. At the center of this drift is the uncertainty of the status of Kosovo, which is eroding stability and growth in the area. They urge the United States and its European allies to reverse this drift by focusing on effective ways to help bring about concrete political and economic reforms in Serbia, establishing a process to make a determination of Kosovo’s final status by mid 2005, and easing pressure on Montenegro to remain a part of the Serbia-Montenegro Union. A democratic, prosperous Serbia will be better fostered by Serbia’s independence from Kosovo and Montenegro. If the international community continues with its status quo policy the entire region could become seriously destabilized.
The results of Serbia’s December 2003 parliamentary elections accelerated concerns that the situation in the Balkans is seriously deteriorating. On 2 March 2004 the Public International Law & Policy Group and The Century Foundation convened a roundtable of sixteen people deeply involved in Balkan issues from the region, Europe, and the United States to review the general situation in the Balkans and examine the approach of the United States and European Union (EU) to the region.
