The birth of a new nation

Yesterday the world saw the birth of a new nation, Kosovo or Kosova. Kosovo used to be an autonomous province of Serbia, which in turn used to be part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro. Now to add to this is of course that all of the above mentioned three countries used to be part of, together with Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and lastly Macedonia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

I know that is quite a lot to take in, but please try, it might be important to some persons.

So 17 February, 2008, the birth of a nation. At least for some, among the important "countries", the EU and the US, Kosovo is likely to be recognised.* Russia and Serbia on the other hand does not recognise Kosovo and at least Serbia still sees Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia, a province of Serbia. This must be a fairly awkward situation for Serbia, administratively I mean, especially if they really see Kosovo as an integral part of its country.

For instance, the welfare system ought to be given to people in Kosovo if they so wish for it. Kosovo citizens can ask for money from the central government in Belgrade (capital of Serbia), since they are "citizens of Serbia". I am not sure how they will solve the border issue. I reckon that there will be a border on the Kosovo side, but there really shouldn't be any border on the Serbian side. One can have a situation with internal borders but I know of very few countries that do have that, especially concerning customs and tariffs. The obvious exception is of course a customs union, i.e. the EU, but no need to discuss that now.

Really what I wanted to say was, after my long rant, Kosovo, welcome! I wish you the very best!

*Now I did write important countries, which might sound a little subjective, but unfortunately the two mentioned countries do constitute the major players on the political world arena. Secondly EU does not recognise countries but this is done by the individual member states however the European Council makes a statement, a very influential statement.