The Balkans looks better when viewed from Brussels (Koha Ditore)
The paper’s correspondent from Brussels, Augustin Palokaj writes that Kosovo is in a chaotic situation at the moment as the Kosovo government is facing radical blockade by the opposition. While the actions of the opposition are unacceptable in a normal democracy, neither are the government’s actions in consistently ignoring the Assembly. At the same time, the European Union has had a “hypocritical” stance towards the work of the Kosovo Assembly, says Palokaj. On the one hand, the EU progress reports highlighted that the Assembly is not successfully performing its duty of monitoring the government but on the other, it supported the government in not asking for Assembly’s approval on agreements reached with Serbia. Palokaj writes that since the beginning of the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, the EU has maintained that talks with Serbia are more important for Kosovo than its actual democratization but it is now becoming increasingly evident that the situation in Kosovo is unpredictable and cannot be calmed down with the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement or the promise of visa liberalization. Brussels is however choosing to continue its policy of “self-assurance” in believing that the dialogue has truly achieved historic results but the fact of the matter is that chaos in Kosovo and the nationalistic rhetoric in Belgrade are threatening to spiral out of control.