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by RAY FLEMING
The European Union's unrestrained euphoria at the victory of the pro-Western Boris Tadia in Serbia's presidential election last Sunday has already turned sour. The deputy prime minister of Serbia, Bozidar Djelic, was immediately invited to Brussels to sign an agreement that would legitimise the EU's proposal to send a 1'800 strong “mission” to Kosovo to oversee that Serbian province's transition to independence. However, Mr Djelic's trip has been postponed following an unequivocal statement from President Tadia yesterday: “There is no legal framework in place for an EU mission to be sent to Kosovo...the mission can only be approved by the United Nations Security Council”. Concurrently, the Russian ambassador to the EU said that the UN Secretary General would go beyond his responsibilities if he were to “legitimise” the proposed EU mission: “Any attempt to circumvent the UN Security Council resolution 1244 would put the EU mission on a very shaky legal basis and create a serious precedent in international law” he said. Resolution 1244, passed by the Security Council in 1999, authorised UN administration in Kosovo following allegations of genocide against its mainly ethnic Albanian population by Serbs; it said nothing about Kosovar independence. Why is Brussels acting so hurriedly when there are several EU states with doubts about this policy? The answer is that the United States is committed to independence for Kosovo and is using the EU as its instrument for bringing it about.