The Western Balkans do not feature high on the French Presidency’s list of priorities, but the lion’s share of Paris’ diplomatic activates is nevertheless likely to be concentrated on this region, and Kosovo in particular.

The Slovenian EU Presidency has worked hard in recent months to bring the Balkans closer to the EU. Most of its goals have been achieved. All countries in the region, including Serbia and Bosnia, which for a long time were lagging behind, have associate status. All of them have already started talks with the EU on the visa-free regime. Concrete progress was also achieved with Kosovo. Slovenia successfully steered the EU through the first months of Kosovo’s independence. Thanks to its skilful diplomacy, the region remained peaceful and no serious acts of violence occurred between Serbia and Kosovo.

Despite significant efforts, Slovenia, did not manage, however, to secure timely deployment of the EULEX mission, which initially was supposed to arrive in Kosovo by mid-June. According to the most recent estimates, EULEX will not reach its full operational capacity before the summer. It seems therefore that the remaining work, involving diplomatic efforts at the UN to ease the smooth transition of UNMIK’s responsibilities to EULEX will need to be accomplished by Paris.

France, a staunch supporter of the EULEX involvement in Kosovo, faces a difficult task. The UN Security Council, in which Paris along with the US, UK, Russia and China has a permanent seat, remains deeply divided over Kosovo, and over EULEX’s deployment in particular. Moscow, a firm opponent of Kosovo’s independence, believes that the EU’s decision to take over administration of the newly born state from UNMIK is illegal and should be declared null and void. It is putting pressure on the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, to try to stop him from giving a formal green light to the EULEX mission. Careful diplomacy will be needed to break the stalemate and prevent any further delay which could undermine the EU’s credibility. However, Paris wants to avoid any quick moves. “We will carefully design our steps according to the situation on the ground and in line with the international community’s stance on the issue,” a French diplomat told Europolitics. “Full deployment remains our goal,” she added, underlining, that in the meantime France will try to “keep Serbia on board”.

In the second part of France’s term in office, the EU is expected to decide on the date for opening accession negotiations with Macedonia. By then, the EU will have to hammer out a compromise on the issue. In the meantime, the still unresolved name dispute between Skopje and Athens is triggering rifts among member states. France does not plan, however, to facilitate a settlement by becoming involved in the UN-led talks between Macedonia and Greece. “The countries have to agree between themselves,” the French diplomat said. “We do not plan any involvement in this process.”