Do the State Department and US Ambassador in Belgrade Michael Kirby advocate the position that as long as Kosovo is not allowed to join the UN, Serbia should not be able to join the EU? The answer to this question is complicated, because despite having made this statement a day before Catholic Christmas, the US Ambassador now claims that no one in Washington is of that opinion. How is Belgrade meant to interpret US policy? Will we have to accept Kosovo’s membership in the UN, or is their no real reason to worry about the conditions of entry for Serbia in the EU?
The US claiming one thing whilst doing the opposite is nothing new for Belgrade. This previously occurred when Washington repeatedly denied lobbying for the independence of Kosovo, whilst WikiLeaks revealed correspondence between former UK Ambassador to Serbia, Stephen Wordsworth, and his colleague Cameron Munter. WikiLeaks revealed that Wordsworth had asked Munter to at least temporarily suspend pressure on other countries to recognize Kosovo, to reduce the credibility of Vuk Jeremic, the Serbian FM at the time, who had repeatedly used this argument against the US.
Former Serbian Ambassador to the US, Ivan Vujacic said that the US had lobbied for Kosovo in the UN, emphasizing that they considered this to be an important matter. However he also mentioned that the question of Serbia’s integration into the EU was no longer in American hands. “Expectations that Kosovo will join the UN exist in the US. But Americans will not forcibly impose them”. When asked about the meaning of Kirby’s denial, Vujacic said that Kirby had probably wanted to “clear the field” for his successor, since he is due to leave Serbia in a few days.
