KOSOVO: NO MORE TABOOS, NO TO INDEPENDENCE

Declaration by Oliver Dupuis Radical MEP of the Bonino List:

Strasbourg, 15 December 1999. "Ibrahim Rugova's declarations in today's Le Monde confirm, once again, the complete irresponsibility of his political analysis and ideas. To re-propose, today, the old slogan of "independence for Kosovo" is - not considering Mr. Rugova's rather pathetic presidential ambitions - very irresponsible. The Balkans, and therefore Kosovo, need, first of all, stability, the rule of law and the implementation of State structures.

All these needs will never be satisfied by a multiplication of states in the region. I believe that it is urgent to address the issue of the reconstruction of Kosovo together with that of Albania, which also needs the reconstruction of its state institutions.

Without hypocrisy and taboos, the time has come to be bold enough and speak about the unification of Albania and Kosovo and stop panicking about the creation of a greater Albania - which would be smaller than the Italian region of Apulia and of almost any other state in the region. It should be up to the European Union, in the first place, to conceive an extraordinary plan to build a common, solid and reliable state structure in Albania and Kosovo based on the rule of law. Only with the implementation of these necessary premises there will be economic development and true stability in this region of the Balkans."