Former MEP Doris Pack speaks out against border changes in Western Balkans (N1, Radio Free Europe)
The European Parliament’s former rapporteur on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Doris Pack, spoke out on Tuesday against changes to borders in the Balkans.
Former MEP expressed surprise over the fact that the Presidents of Serbia and Kosovo, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci, support the proposed territory swap between Serbia and Kosovo.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade never recognised the decision, and officially still considers Kosovo a province of Serbia in spite of having no de facto authority there, with the exception of a Serb-populated enclave in the very north of Kosovo.
The idea of a territory exchange between Serbia and Kosovo surfaced last year. Under the proposal, Serbia would take control of northern Kosovo while giving up the southern Serbian region of Presevo Valley, the centre of the Albanian community in Serbia which borders on Kosovo.
“I think that the issue of border changes in the Balkans and southeast Europe is something we should not allow. If you know what happened in the countries of that region over the past few years you can’t be in favour of border changes. If that starts, it is the beginning of the end,” Pack told Radio Free Europe.
“I can’t understand that Vucic is in favour of this and I can’t understand that Thaci is for this policy because it concerns him as well. What is happening now is not in the interest of Kosovo and 95 percent of the citizens of Kosovo do not want changes to the border,” she said.
She warned that US President Donald Trump’s administration should not be giving people ideas about changes to the borders.
“I hope that will not be the solution,” Pack said, adding that Russia had no interest in helping the countries of the region, but instead has “an egotistic interest in preventing those countries from joining NATO."
According to Pack, despite her expectations that the situation would get better after the peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, it did not happen.
"What I see and feel is that some politicians are much more interested in dividing the country, dividing the people, instead of reforming the state, which would mean that everyone should work together to join the European Union," said Pack.
"I think the divisions are much bigger now than they were in the mid-1990s."