Finishing the Job in the Western Balkans
Western Balkan countries have made significant progress since the 1990s, when ethnic violence tore the region apart and necessitated an international intervention. But that progress is fragile, and could easily be reversed without a renewed push to put these countries on the road to European Union membership.
BRUSSELS – On January 16, representatives of Serbia and Kosovo met in Brussels for confidence-building talks. But, on that same day, the Kosovo Serb minority leader Oliver Ivanović was shot dead in the Serb-administered section of Mitrovica, in Northern Kosovo, and the talks were called off.