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EDITORIAL

Does the Kosovo case make a precedent? Ask this question in Brussels or Washington and you will get the same answer: No. It is "no" because Kosovo is a single case, it was a singular solution to an exceptional case. This is false, as the respective process is accomplished by the making of a new independent state, recognized at once by some main political actors on the international stage, a state enjoying political, economic and military support from Washington, NATO and EU.

At that time Romania and some other EU members tried to warn that Pandora's Box was being opened, not necessarily in the Balkans, although in the latter place another major difficulty is about to explode if those longing for an independent state win the referendum in Voivodina. So Romania said the Pandora Box would be thrown open and a precedent would emerge in the international legislation allowing for the making of a new state due to modifying the borders because of a military conflict. It was the very thing the international community had promised to prevent after WW II, a norm included in international treaties and agreements as basis for constructing international balance.

Kosovo was the first element announcing the intention for change, despite well-known risks, a change of this balance and of that frail statu quo reached after the Cold War. The new type of reasoning is based on the fact that understanding governments, very addicted to foreign support, take control over those areas problematic in terms of the security of their energy markets. The counter-reasoning is as simple: the urgent making of new foundations for control over the same areas, thus favoring separatist regimes' independence claims or, as it may happen rather soon, the separatist aspirations of territories ethnically compact. The one in eastern Ukraine is top of the list. Here is a possible objection: these new countries may be acknowledged unilaterally only by Russia, for instance, or by a very small number of other states, mainly from the Community of Independent States. The territory the Turks grabbed in northern Cyprus was admitted to be a sovereign state only by Turkey. Nevertheless, that entity exists in fact and it has been a considerable issue on the latest decades' agenda.

France has now summoned an extraordinary European Council on the state of things in Georgia and a NATO reunion is very likely to be held to the same end. The background topic is the relations with Russia and consensus on a common stance. It is one way or the other: 1. the caution principle is dropped and there may follow a confrontation with direct and immediate effects, which would significantly reflect on the EU energy security and put the allied states' alert higher; 2. the current policy, grounded mainly on warnings and lessons, is kept, given the hope that Russia will try to avoid a predictably isolated position on the international stage.

Romania is once again in a very difficult situation. It has got neither the influence nor the economy reserves to resist Russian energy embargo or price readjusting. But, despite the snarls for the survival of prestige, it can only join the EU-NATO approach: recognition for the Kosovo independence. It comes despite the information about what is going on in Transdniestria and Ukraine, to mention the most obvious examples. Of course Traian Basescu won't be asked for his opinion. But we should remember that those enthusiastic supporters of Abkhazia and Ossetia claims are Romanian citizens, more exactly Szecklars. This is no coincidence and the story comes from the same Pandora Box...