E.U. Pledges Assistance to Kosovo on Path Toward Independence

PARIS, Dec. 14 -- European Union leaders on Friday pledged 1,800 police and administrative officials to Kosovo, part of a package of aid and diplomacy intended to facilitate a well-choreographed, quick and peaceful march to independence for the breakaway Serbian province.

The E.U. government heads, meeting at a summit in Brussels, stopped short of pledging to recognize Kosovo if its leaders declare independence, fearing that such a declaration and an endorsement by the 27-nation bloc could provoke a nationalist backlash in Serbia ahead of elections early next year. Some analysts have warned that ethnic violence might resume.

But signaling their aim to exert European influence over the independence process, they announced plans to send the 1,800 personnel to the province in the near future. In addition, some E.U. leaders held out the possibility that Serbia could be awarded a fast-track membership path into the European Union if it is more accommodating on Kosovo.

"Kosovo's independence is inevitable," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters after the summit. "It's an issue for Europe to sort out."

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica threw water on the whole idea. "It is unacceptable to speak of Kosovo, a province of Serbia, as a future state," he said in a statement Friday, according to the Reuters news agency. "It is especially insulting to offer to a crippled Serbia a reward of fast track to the E.U. in exchange for its consent to violence."

Russia, which has consistently sided with Serbia in the dispute, argues for continuing negotiations over Kosovo. It has said that any declaration of independence would be illegal and could set off a "chain reaction" across the Balkans.

"Declaring independence is the easy part; what's difficult is the years after," said a senior E.U. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Unless there is a sense that it is a coordinated and organized process, Kosovo is going to be in a very difficult situation. They have a lot to lose if they don't work on these issues with a certain caution."

At the same time, several E.U. members -- most notably Cyprus, but to lesser degrees Greece, Slovakia, Romania and Spain -- are concerned that backing independence in Kosovo, without a U.N. Security Council resolution supporting it, could set a dangerous precedent for other secessionist movements.

The E.U. has been eager to show that it can muster the political will and military and economic resources to avert another conflict in the Balkans. Facing a certain Russian veto over Kosovo independence in the Security Council, the E.U. has been struggling to reach consensus on an alternative course.

"We have a duty to deliver, as far as Kosovo is concerned, and we cannot be blocked by a kind of Russian veto," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters.

"We have seen what happened in the former Yugoslavia when the European Union did not take things in hand," warned Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht, referring to the outbreak of wars in the early 1990s.

The status of Kosovo is the last major unresolved dispute lingering from the Balkan conflict. Six independent countries were ultimately formed from the breakup of Yugoslavia, and Kosovo would be the seventh.