Kosovo’s status is still in doubt – time for Britain to rethink the need for new talks?

Abstract

When the coalition government’s Minister for Europe visited Pristina recently, almost unnoticed, he reiterated a UK line that Kosovo’s status as independent from Serbia could not be revisited. Yet unless the International Court of Justice comes out unequivocally for Kosovo, James Ker-Lindsay argues that the British stance will prove unsustainable. Opinion in Brussels is shifting to the view that Kosovo and Serbia need assistance to negotiate a deal that could put both on the path to economic renewal, and eventually EU membership