G8 Consensus on KOSOVO Independence

Kosovo: G8 consensus emerges
July 17th, 2006

According to the Interfax report, the G8 heads that are meeting in Russia have all agreed that Kosovo solution must be a “compromise solution with the goal of preservation of multi-ethnic Kosovo.”

This statement is significant because it provides a consensus on a diplomatic outcome and the question forward is which modality will best create conditions for an emergence of a multi-ethnic Kosovo: independence or autonomy. Perhaps by carefully scrutinizing who will be forced to compromise, Kosovo Albanians who want independence or Belgrade that seeks to give them a wide autonomy, one may be able to determine which way is this group leaning.

There is a lurking suspicion, however, that G8 is not easy in granting Kosovo Albanians any more self-rule such as independence because, in their official statement, G8 is urging Kosovo Albanians to use the existing level of self rule in order to “observe internationally accepted standards for dealing with ethnic minorities”.