Special case of Kosovo Unitary state

History and trends

Kosovo is a parliamentary republic. Its constitution was adopted on 9 April 2008.

Ethnic Albanians (mostly Muslims) make up 85% of its population, with a high total fertility rate. The north of the country is home to a Serbian minority. Prior to the unilateral declaration of independence in 2008, Kosovo was a region of Yugoslavia and, later, of Serbia. It is home to a handful of industries in Kosovska Mitrovica (lead and zinc mining and metalworking) and around Pristina (lignite mines to fuel coal-fired power stations).

The 1999 war, which saw half of the ethnic Albanian population and a large number of Serbs forced into exile, exacerbated the region’s economic problems (poor standard of living, sparsely populated countryside, high unemployment). It is the poorest place in Europe and is dependent on international aid.

In total, 45 countries (mostly Western countries), along with Macedonia and Montenegro, have recognised Kosovo as an independent state. Five EU member states – Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Slovakia – have refused to recognise Kosovo’s independence.

A number of international organisations play a decisive role in Kosovo. The European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) ensures that the law is applied in three areas – justice, the police and customs. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has administered Kosovo since 1999 and was reconfigured in 2008. Lastly, the Kosovo Force (KFOR) – an international peacekeeping force with around 5,000 NATO troops – is responsible for maintaining security, especially in those areas with a Serbian-majority population such as Mitrovica.

Even today, Kosovo remains an ethnically diverse country. It is home to Albanians, Serbs, Romani, Ashkali, Turks, Bosniaks (Muslim Slavs living in Serbia), Gorani (Muslim Slavs who live in the Šar Mountains between Kosovo and Macedonia and speak a Macedonian-Bulgarian language) and Croats.

These communities long coexisted in peace, if not together then at the very least as good neighbours, and there was a sense of mutual support and solidarity in many villages. In big cities such as Prizren, people still speak four languages in their everyday business – Albanian, Serbian, Turkish and Romani. Yet conflicts in the 20th century severely undermined Kosovo’s multi-ethnic society.

Kosovo was part of the Ottoman Empire which, until 1912, distinguished between different European Turkish populations by religion as opposed to nationality – a situation that caused people to change and switch identities on numerous occasions. For centuries, communities were identified along socio-professional or religious, as opposed to national, lines. All Muslims living in Rumelia (European Turkey) were classed as “Turks”, regardless of whether they were Albanians, Slavs or of different origin.

The introduction of the nation-state concept in the Balkans in the 19th century and the emergence of “national folklore” forced Kosovo’s various communities to identify with a particular nationality. In the ensuing battle between Albanian and Serbian nationalists, both of whom laid exclusive claim to Kosovo, the region’s smaller ethnic groups had no choice but to integrate or disappear. The Bosniaks and Gorani living in Kosovo underwent rapid Albanisation. Belgrade, meanwhile, refers to these communities as “Islamised Serbs”.

Following the First Balkan War, when the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Montenegrins, the major powers (France, United Kingdom, Russia and Austria-Hungary) granted Albania independence via the Treaty of London (30 May 1913). Although ethnic Albanians made up the vast majority of Kosovo’s population, the territory was divided between Serbia and Montenegro, before becoming part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after World War I. In the inter-war period, the province experienced no economic or educational development and was subjected to agrarian colonisation by the Serbian authorities. A majority of Albanians voted in favour of creating Greater Albania, a protectorate of Italy, in 1941.

There were fewer Tito supporters in Kosovo than in the other regions that would ultimately form the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in 1945. Nevertheless, at the end of World War II, Kosovo became an autonomous province of the Republic of Serbia.

The province enjoyed extensive political and economic powers. Following the 1966 dismissal of Aleksandar Ranković, the chief of the military intelligence agency, and the drafting of a new constitution in 1974, the province underwent a period of cultural development with the creation of a university. Pristina became the intellectual capital of the Albanian world.

Despite receiving significant funding from the federal regional development fund (which targeted poor regions using contributions from the wealthiest republics, i.e. Croatia and Slovenia), Kosovo remained chronically underdeveloped.

The 1960s onwards saw the emergence of a large Kosovo Albanian diaspora in Western Europe, primarily in Switzerland and Germany. The death of Tito and the economic crisis of the 1980s transformed social discontent into political grievances.

The 1981 protests, when Kosovo Albanians demanded that the autonomous province become a federal republic of Yugoslavia, were brutally repressed by the Yugoslav security forces. Relations between the communities continued to deteriorate throughout the 1980s, as the Albanians demanded social, cultural and political equality, while the Serbs condemned the pressure and violence against them.

Kosovo lost its autonomous status on 23 February 1989 under the rule of Slobodan Milošević (1987-1999) and the Serbian parliament triumphantly proclaimed that Serbia was “reunified”.

Following the signature of the Kumanovo Military Technical Agreement on 9 June 1999, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244 and established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), thereby placing the province under a temporary protectorate. Although there were NATO and KFOR forces on the ground, half of Kosovo’s Serbs and Romani fled before the Albanians returned or fell victim to violent ethnic cleansing. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 250,000 non-Albanians left Kosovo in 1999 and still have no prospect of returning.

In early 2006, the UN arranged a series of meetings between the Serbian and Albanian delegations in Vienna to determine the future status of Kosovo. However, Belgrade and Pristina held incompatible positions. The Albanians refused to accept anything other than independence.

The Serbs, meanwhile, were formally opposed to any form of independence and no Serbian leader dared take the political risk of letting Kosovo go. The new Serbian constitution (adopted by referendum on 29 October 2006) defined Kosovo as an integral part of the Serbian state. Moreover, article 114 requires the president to swear an oath to “preserve the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Serbia, including Kosovo and Metohija as its constituent part”.

Following unsuccessful negotiations, the UN special envoy (Martti Ahtisaari of Finland) tabled a document on 2 February 2007 to serve as the basis for a UN Security Council resolution. The document stipulated that Kosovo would have the right to its own constitution, anthem and flag, as well as the right to join any international organisation, including the United Nations. In return, the Serbian municipalities would enjoy an extensive form of administrative decentralisation and maintain “special” relations with Serbia. The final version of the document, submitted to the Security Council on 26 March, explicitly stated that Kosovo should be granted “independence with international supervision”.

On 17 February 2008, Kosovo’s parliament unilaterally declared independence, with the backing of the United States and several European countries such as France, the United Kingdom and Slovenia, which had held the EU presidency since 1 January 2008. President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi officially declared the birth of a new state.

Belgrade immediately condemned the declaration of independence as “illegal” and protests were held in Northern Mitrovica and the Serbian capital.

The majority of EU Member States recognised Kosovo’s independence soon after, with the exception of five – Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Slovakia. Locally, Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary recognised Kosovo as an independent state on 19 March, followed by Montenegro and Macedonia in October. The only country in the region that has not recognised Kosovo is Bosnia and Herzegovina, because Republika Srpska – the Serbian entity – categorically refuses to do so. Kosovo joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in June 2009. It has no hope of joining the United Nations for as long as China and Russia, both of which hold a veto, object to its membership.

Serbia continues to have political and economic influence in the enclaves, although there have been drastic cuts to the salaries of civil servants paid by Belgrade. The Serbian local and parliamentary elections of May 2008 proceeded without violence across all of the enclaves, while there was a mass Serb boycott of the November 2009 municipal elections organised by the Pristina government. Kosovo’s declaration of independence brought an untenable status quo to an end, but it has yet to substantially close the divide between communities. The UNMIK interim administration, introduced in 1999, still remains in force.

In its Advisory Opinion of 22 July 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that the declaration of Independence of Kosovo did not violate international law. In the wake of this ruling, Belgrade relaxed its position and opened EU-backed dialogue with Pristina, supporting a compromise UN resolution adopted on 9 September. The “dialogue”, which supposedly focused on “technical questions” rather than the status of Kosovo, began in Brussels on 9 March 2011 with EU mediation. Some of the first issues on the agenda included missing persons, telecommunications and freedom of movement.

The two sides signed a more general, political agreement in Brussels on 19 April 2013, which provided for the grouping of the four northern Serb-majority municipalities (Northern Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic) into a new entity with statutory powers, initially in five policy areas (economic development, health, education, and town and rural planning), the integration of parallel Serbian police and judicial structures into the Kosovo police framework, and the organisation of municipal elections.