By David MacShane, UK’s Minister of the Balkans from 2001 to 2005.

The modest steps brokered by the EU between Serbia and Kosovo are to be welcomed. But the fact remains that more than 15 years since the fighting stopped in Kosovo, and 20 years since the Katyn-style massacres in Srebrenica, the Western Balkans is unable to move forward.

The European Union mission in Kosovo, meant to help the state develop its justice system, urged Kosovars yesterday (30 October) not to lose trust over allegations at least two senior staffers took bribes to drop criminal charges.

The mission, known as EULEX, is the EU's biggest and most expensive and the affair threatens to undermine its goal of promoting law and order in the young country.