THE deal struck between Serbia and Kosovo on April 19th was nothing short of historic. It was a big success for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, who mediated ten gruelling rounds of talks between the leaders of the two sides. And it demonstrates that the lure of EU enlargement is still sufficiently strong to get people and countries to do things that they would otherwise resist.
The agreement was negotiated by men whose backgrounds hardly suggest they were cut out for compromise. Ivica Dacic, Serbia’s prime minister, was the spokesman for Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who went to war in Kosovo in 1998 and fought against NATO there in 1999. His partner was Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s deputy prime minister, once an extreme nationalist. On the other side was Hashim Thaci, Kosovo’s prime minister and a former guerrilla leader against the Serbs.Ever since they reached an agreement, all have been accused of treason and even received death threats. But the evidence suggests that most Serbs and Kosovo Albanians trust their leaders to have done the right thing. Kosovo, where the population is overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian, declared…
The Economist: Europe
