EUROPEAN SECURITY FORUM A JOINT INITIATIVE OF CEPS AND THE IISS A EUROPEAN BALKANS? ESF WORKING PAPER NO. 18 JANUARY 2005 WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY JACQUES RUPNIK DANIEL SERWER BORIS SHMELEV SUMMING UP BY FRANÇOIS HEISBOURG ISBN 92-9079-532-8 © COPYRIGHT 2005, CEPS & IISS CENTRE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE EUROPEAN FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES POLICY STUDIES Place du Congrès 1 ▪ B-1000 Brussels, Belgium Arundel House ▪ 13-15 Arundel Street, Temple Place Tel: +32 (0)2.229.39.11 ▪ Fax: +32 (0)2.219.41.51 London WC2R 3DX, United Kingdom www.ceps.be ▪ E-mail:
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[email protected] A European Balkans? Working Paper No. 18 of the European Security Forum Contents Chairman’s Summing up FRANÇOIS HEISBOURG 1 Europe’s Challenges in the Balkans A European Perspective JACQUES RUPNIK 4 Kosovo Won’t Wait An American Perspective DANIEL SERWER 7 The Balkans: Powder keg of Europe or Zone of Peace and Stability? A Russian Perspective BORIS SHMELEV 13 Chairman’s Summing up François Heisbourg* he Chairman recalled the reasons for holding this particular session. On the one hand, at the Thessaloniki meeting of the European Council (June 2003), the prospect was Tlaid out of the Balkans being included, over time, within the European Union; hence, the title of the session. How that vision is to be fulfilled is obviously very much open to question, which is indeed one of reasons underlying the work of the new International Commission on the Balkans chaired by former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato.