The most influential newspaper in the wolds asks: How could the border change happen in 2008, and now it can't?

Serbia and Kosovo entered the final phase of the negotiations, which should permanently solve long-standing ethnic problems, and critics argue that the correction of borders and territorial exchange, negotiated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovo counterpart, Hashim Thaci, are too risky, according to the Washington Post.

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As they stated, the potential danger lies behind the possible expansion of the problem throughout the Balkans, because "if Belgrade and Pristina exchanged territories, it could also trigger Croats and Serbs in Bosnia to be independent, breaking Bosnia into pieces during that process, and Albanians and Macedonians could do the same thing.

But did these same arguments apply in 2008, when Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, and the United States immediately recognized it as an independent state?

Ten years ago, most observers in the US and Europe concluded that the only practical solution to the issue of Kosovo, which had been under UN and NATO administration since 1999, was to give the state full statehood. 

Foto: A. Nalbantjan

Croats and Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia were not allowed to break away during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and while the international community claimed that the borders of Bosnia and Croatia cannot be changed, the same principle was not applied in 2008, in the case Kosovo.

The southern Serbian province, according to their claims, is a unique case.

A peaceful and mutually agreed exchange of territory between Serbia and Kosovo should be acceptable to those who want stability in the Balkans. Such an agreement would have to include several factors.

First, it must lead to a normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, including the exchange of representatives. Secondly, the agreement must give Pristina the right to join international institutions, such as the UN and the third, Belgrade would have to unambiguously explain the Serbs in Bosnia that the only way to erase the borders that separate these countries is to join the EU.

Foto: Wikipedia/Yuryi Abramochkin / Юрий Абрамочкин/RIA Novosti, Tanjug/Sava Radovanović

Albania and Kosovo would have the same obligation with regard to Albanians in Macedonia and Montenegro. Finally, the EU must reiterate its commitment to accepting new member states from the Western Balkans, when these countries meet all the necessary criteria for accession.

In addition to eliminating the possibility of a conflict between Serbs and Albanians, an agreement that would replace parts of northern Kosovo for parts of southern Serbia would diminish Russia's influence on Serbia.

Right at this moment, as stated, Kremlin is using Kosovo to blackmail Serbia, because Belgrade can't go against Moscow, due to the Russian veto in the Security Council.

If Serbia and Kosovo manage to reach an agreement on their own, the position of Russia will weaken. Moscow could then try to pressure Belgrade and to ask guarantees that Serbia will never join NATO, but such costs are likely to way higher than the benefits of normalized relations with Kosovo, completely consolidated borders and a clear road to the EU.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Washington Post)