Sorry, Not Interested.(World Affairs)

Byline: Michael Levitin

Serbia refuses to give up Kosovoaeven if it means giving up its shot at entering the European Union.

Thereas a dark joke going around Serbia these days: aRussia finished the cold war with Americaaso Serbia is carrying on with it.a Given the hostile stance of the two former superpowers over Kosovo, the assessment may be close to the mark. This week Washington heads to the United Nations Security Councilas debate on Kosovo, with most of Europe alongside it, pressing for independence. But Serbiaas Parliament has overwhelmingly rejected any future EU-imposed mission in Kosovo, and stands with the support of Russia and a growing list of countries including China, Indonesia and South Africa in its refusal to part with the regionaeven, according to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, if it means shelving EU membership talks.

Serbia, it seems, has flipped the tables on the EU. For the first time, a European country outside the EU is not clamoring to be let in, but, on the contrary, making demands of its own, insisting Europe continue negotiations over Kosovo until an agreeable solution to all parties is met. To the Serb on the street, itas a perfectly rational move. When they look toward the EUas newest members, Romania and Bulgaria, they see their neighbors, admitted in 2007, with crumbling infrastructure and a lower average monthly income than the Serbs themselves. In a recent poll, 75 percent of Serbs rejected giving up Kosovo in exchange for EU membership.

Now Serbia is demanding Europe line up awith us or against usa on Kosovo, and a number of EU states are leaning Serbiaas way. Those opposed to a unilateral Kosovo declaration of independence include Spain, Cyprus, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Greece. They argue that to forcibly separate the 90 percent ethnic Albanian and largely Muslim province from an unwilling Serbia will undermine stability in the Balkans and set a dangerous precedent for other separatist movements.

For its part, the United States officially supports Kosovoas independence. But opposition has sprouted up. Former Navy admiral and Joint Chiefs of Staff adviser James Lyons warned this month against setting up a aTaliban-like state in the very heart of Europea that ahas known ties to the global jihad movement and organized crime.a Its independence, ...