Graham's blog entry 28 March 2008

Published on Fri 28th Mar 2008

While most MEPs returned to Brussels on Tuesday after a short Easter break I set out for Kosovo with three of my colleagues to meet government and opposition representatives there and to be briefed by UNMIK and KFOR on the security situation. It was my first visit to Pristina and I was fortunate enough to have among my companions Slovenian LibDem MEP Jelko Kacin, a former defence minister who knows the whole of ex-Yugoslavia. We met the President and the Prime Minister and leaders of the political parties and came away convinced that the overwhelming majority of Kosovo's Serbs and Albanians want to make a multi-ethnic society work but are being undermined by forces in Belgrade which seek to destabilise the area north of the river Ibar, by radicalising the majority Serb population there. For the EU to take on responsibility for security in Kosovo is indeed a big challenge. If the chronic unemployment (officially 33% but really over 60%, the Minister of labour told us), poverty (average PCI just over EUR 1000), electricity shortages and dearth of water are not problem enough, the armed attacks earlier this month (by Serbs on customs points, the railway, police forces and the court house in Mitrovica in the north) stretch substantially the resources and the mandate of the 300 or so NATO troops there. Unless the result of Serbia's forthcoming election brings about a change in policy, Kosovo could turn out to be the first real test of the EU's nascent common foreign and security policy. And if we want stability on our borders we cannot afford to fail.

Back in Brussels my Group moved successfully to add to the agenda of Wednesday's statement on the recent European Council (summit) meeting a statement on Tibet. We invited Mr Karma Chophel, Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament to attend the session and obtained an open invitation from Parliament for the Dalai Lama to visit at any time. Most of my colleagues agree with my assessment that to boycott the Olympic Games would not be appropriate; indeed, the Dalai Lama himself is against a boycott. But we should use every political and diplomatic channel to express our opposition to continued Chinese illegal occupation of Tibet and oppression of its people.

The European Commission has released EUR 229 m in aid to Palestine. It will help rebuild infrastructure (essentially electricity, water, waste management and schools), will fund activities of the UN Relief and Works Agency and will allow the Palestinian Authority to pay key staff. It is not much of a substitute for a lasting peace, but without it the plight of the Palestinians would be much, much worse.

Reading the UK press this week one might think that all that matters in Europe can be decided by the French President and the UK Prime Minister; that the EU hangs on the dispositions of Paris and London. If people believe it they are deluding themselves. Both countries are important; but their combined population is only one-fifth of the EU's and their combined economic strength probably less.