Comments on: Belgium holds the line

By: Oskar

Oskar — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:38:49 +0000

I agree with Doug (as usual). Reopening candidacy talks with the EU is not going to get the Serbs to leave Kosovo is even help them to save face. Not only is Serbia likely to continue to oppose independence for Kosovo, the EU is just as likely to come up with some new demand on Serbia. Serbs will, rightly, ask why they should give up Kosovo in return for just more talk. They will have learned some lessons from how the EU has conducted its talks with Turkey.

By: Fidel Pardussi

Fidel Pardussi — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 17:07:12 +0000

There is no peace without justice. And, letting Serbia off the hook would amount to a betrayal of those who have cooperated with the Tribunal, let alone the victims of genocide and other war crimes.

Serbian politicians have been stupid enough to barricade themselves behind their *current* position and even if the West would like to reward them for a change of position they cannot change their position. To rip any rewards they will need to change their new constitution and step upon a number of parliamentary resolutions which is political suicide. So, good luck to them.

Yet again, the Serbian politicians choose “sve ili nista” (all or nothing) strategy — the same as Milosevic did before NATO bombing — and the odds are that they will get the latter.

As far as Belgium is concerned, a big THANK YOU!

By: bytycci

bytycci — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 07:15:50 +0000

The Belgians are right in their predictions.

In fact if a new Serbian government is formed the EU won’t even have to promise negotiatins in exchange for Kosovo. There won’t be an urgent need to ‘make sure the Radicals don’t win the elections’.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:38:04 +0000

As the court won’t last long now, why does it matter?

By: Nanne

Nanne — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 03:54:45 +0000

Maxime Verhagen has only been in office for a week so he hasn’t had much time for rabble-rousing yet, I guess. When he was faction leader in parliament for the CDA he did write the following (in 2004):

“Schröder is one of the least successful and least impressive chancellors since WWII with a short-term opinion-poll policy that has lost Germany its leading role in Europe and hardly lets any structural reforms come to fruition. It is in the interest of the Netherlands that our large neighbour and most important trading partner runs a good economy and is not the old, tired man of Europe”

I tend to think that a foreign minister’s task is diplomacy and not being colourful, but what the hey…

By: Tom Harlen

Tom Harlen — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 02:07:19 +0000

A fine example of the EU’s soft power in action.

By: Aidan Kehoe

Aidan Kehoe — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:32:32 +0000

Go Belgium!