Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates (l) applauds his Slovenian cou terpart Janez Jansa during the ceremony of taking EU presidency from Portugal to Slovenia, Dec. 30.

Slovenia assumes the presidency of the EU from Portugal, thereby becoming the first country from the 2004 wave of enlargement to fulfil this important role.
While Slovenia must also contend with ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, it is the issue of Kosovo which, according to the Slovenian foreign minister, Dimitrij Rupel, “may well be the greatest challenge of the Slovenian presidency“.
Although there is some apprehension about Slovenia occupying the presidency at such a critical moment for the Western Balkans, there is much to suggest that Slovenia has both the necessary capacity and understanding to help the EU articulate a more coherent and constructive approach to the concurrent issues of Kosovo and EU accession.
As Ruprecht Polenz, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, maintained: “It is an advantage that the presidency is being taken over by a former Yugoslav republic with a deep understanding of the situation in the region.“
As such, Slovenia must seek to establish a common EU position based upon Europe’s own integrative principles and practices; in accordance with both UN security council resolution 1244 and the security concerns of the Western Balkans.
According to Rupel, “the prevailing opinion within the EU is that smaller states are more successful in the role of the presidency.
They do not tend to emphasise their own interests, even though it does not mean that they underestimate them either“.
Despite the complications of recent history, Slovenia’s ties with the countries of former Yugoslavia remain deep and enduring, though not without tension.
The country’s potential mediating role will depend, however, on how it employs the unique regional insight it possesses, both for the benefit of Europe’s common foreign policy and for peace and stability throughout the Western Balkans.
Though Rupel has spoken publicly of the need to “work calmly, patiently and in a coordinated manner towards the goal that everybody has--that is stability in the Western Balkans“, the incompatibility of this goal with a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo Albanians has remained under-explored.
Such security threats are deeply felt by several countries in the Balkans, whose opposition to a unilateral declaration of independence continues to mount.
Slovenia itself publicly fears the de facto partitioning of Kosovo, describing it as a “very serious“ risk.
Romania’s defence minister, Teodor Melescanu, meanwhile, recently stated that “a unilateral decision could have a very negative effect on the entire region and is not in keeping with international law“; while the Romanian president, Traian Basescu, indicated that, “based on the principle of territorial integrity and inviolability, we cannot recognise Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence“.
This apprehension towards independence for Kosovo is shared regionally by Greece and Bulgaria, and more broadly by other EU member states, including Spain, Slovakia and Cyprus.
However, these voices have been overlooked thus far as the EU continues to assert its own unity in the face of considerable conjecture and doubt, particularly in the absence of a further UN security council resolution.
Slovenia’s accession to the presidency therefore provides an opportunity to open up new channels for communicating these regional security and stability concerns to a broader European audience.
Rupel also makes clear that “if there is opposition to the direction that the EU and the US are taking, then we should find some way to accommodate ourselves and also Kosovo to this new situation“.
By recognising that the EU’s leverage can create the necessary space and pressure for compromise, constructive dialogue must be encouraged in order to reach a negotiated outcome.
Slovenia is well placed to navigate both the EU and the Western Balkans through these challenges.
With respect to the issue of European expansion, Rupel emphasies that “Slovenia would like to see an intensification of this accession process“. Despite optimism that Serbia will sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) on January 28, however, the issue of Kosovo threatens to further undermine the European perspective in Serbia.
With the first round of presidential elections scheduled for January 20 and with Serbia’s parliament having overwhelmingly adopted a resolution stating that Serbia would not sign international treaties that failed to acknowledge its territorial integrity and sovereignty over Kosovo, further accession towards the EU in the current climate will prove extremely problematic.
GUARDIAN.CO.UK

Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist activists chant slogans and wave flags as they take part in a protest rally in Kathmandu, Nov. 18.

There was a time when an approaching Friday would scare Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, as he publicly admitted once.
His first term as prime minister began after the political changes of 1990. Steps taken by the reigning king on Fridays in intervening years usually heralded some kind of political upheaval.
In recent times, however, Fridays have begun to be fateful to the monarch--and the monarchy.
The first Friday of June 2001 is remembered as the day when the king, queen, crown prince and seven other members of the royal family lost their lives in a palace shootout which remains a mystery even today.
Last Friday, December 28, Nepal’s interim legislature passed a constitutional amendment which is a matter of grave concern to Gyanendra, crowned king seven years ago.
The amended interim statute has categorical words to transform the country into a “federal democratic republic“.
The voting on the agenda went overwhelmingly in favor of this landmark change: 270 to three with 48 abstentions.
In an article published on Sunday ( Dec. 30), Baburam Bhattarai, a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), described the amendment as “an achievement of historical significance“ and claimed a lion’s share of the credit for having spearheaded the resolution, even if it was a joint move of the seven-party alliance government.
In fact, the monarchy has been sidelined since the April uprising of 2006 when King Gyanendra was forced to face a mass agitation which was built up against a royal coup he staged in February 2005.
His proclamation, on April 24, 2006, revived the Parliament he had dissolved earlier.
The restored Parliament then issued its declaration stripping Gyanendra of all state powers and privileges he enjoyed until then.
And in January last year, when the interim constitution was promulgated through a newly-convened interim legislature, it contained a provision saying that the first meeting of the democratically-elected Constituent Assembly (CA) would decide whether or not the institution of monarchy should be retained.
Now the third amendment goes a step further and declares Nepal a republic, requiring the CA to “implement“ this decision.
One of the amended provisions also stipulates that the country could be instantly made a republic if the interim Parliament found Gyanendra creating “serious obstructions“ to the CA polls.
By way of explanation to the media, the interior minister said that Gyanendra would continue to receive authorized allowances and facilities until the declaration of republic came into force. This conditional phrase prompted some editorial writers to conclude that Nepal has become a “republic on paper“.
To the men and women in the street, this is an irony as well as an anomaly: the king remains in the palace but the country has been declared a republic.
That is why there were no spontaneous public expression of joy or reactions to the announcement.
Maoist leader Bhattarai appeared disappointed about the lack of public enthusiasm for this historic achievement. After all, the feudal institution of monarchy is gone, so goes the official line of argument, but one individual king remains until the time the resolution is implemented.
Even the Maoist mouthpiece, Janadisha Daily, likened the status of the monarchy to a leaf which is neither on the tree nor has landed on the ground.
And it blamed Koirala’s Nepali Congress for deliberately keeping the process incomplete.
Pro-monarchists, too, did not come out in the streets in large numbers to express their anger and resentment as expected. It is believed that an ensuing climate of confusion left them in a state of uncertainty. Otherwise, they would have demanded retention of the monarchy at least in a ceremonial form.
Traditionalists believe that since the monarchy is an age-old institution serving as a symbol of Nepal’s unity, the interim government should have organized a referendum to decide its fate.
They cite some of the media polls which have shown the monarchy as a stabilizing factor. Their persistent claim is that one stubborn king must not be mistaken for the institution of monarchy.
But for the fear of being booed and jeered, these people stayed away from the Maoist-dominated political atmosphere. Nobody wanted to be seen as someone supporting regressive elements.
Members of the Young Communist League (YCL), the Maoist outfit for the youth, continue to be active.
Nearly half of Nepal’s 25-million population is illiterate, and a sizeable majority must live on less than US$1 a day.
One important contention put forward by the opposition during the debate on the third amendment pertained to the judicial acceptability of the entire process.
ATIMES.COM

Braving the crush of people at a state-subsidized store, Seraj Ahmed hopes he can buy enough flour to feed his family--all victims of the economic turmoil that has hit the already impoverished country following the slaying of Benazir Bhutto.
The stock market has plunged along with the local currency, while unrest has left hundreds of vehicles destroyed and banks burned.
Damage to the railways alone is estimated at 12.3 billion rupees (US$201 million).
The latest unrest has only deepened the fears of people like Ahmed that life will not get better soon after the loss of the populist leader Bhutto, who despite her privileged background was seen as a woman of the people.
“They have already removed the person from the scene who could bring about any change,“ Ahmed wailed, referring to Bhutto. “The person who talks about the rights of the poor man has been eliminated.“
Driven by aid and investment since it became a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pakistan’s economy has been growing and is targeted to grow by 7 percent for the fiscal year ending in mid-2008.
The Karachi Stock Exchange has hit record highs, with the market capitalization of shares trading there more than quadrupling since 2003.
Shares took a hit on the first day of trading Monday after Bhutto’s death, but still ended the year up 40 percent even with all the turmoil in 2007 such as rising suicide attacks, a state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf and opposition party threats to boycott the parliament vote.
Already, the stock market fall appeared to be losing steam and shares were not expected to suffer in the long term as investors are long accustomed to turbulence in Pakistan.
“If the major political parties are taking part and elections are held in the next few weeks, hopefully things will settle down and the economy will continue its trend,“ said Mohammed Sohail, director of equity trading at Pakistan’s JS Global.
But what keeps stock brokers happy is a world apart from the lives of the many of the 165 million people here, where one-third live below the poverty line earning less than US$1 a day.
Despite the central bank’s hopes of seeing the inflation rate drop from 7.9 percent in 2006, recent forecasts show it likely to remain near that high. More critically, food prices rose by about 14 percent in 2007, building on double-digit increases for both previous years.
For example, a round disc of the chewy naan bread that is a dietary staple cost just 1 Pakistani rupee at the end of the last democratically elected government in 1999 before Musharraf seized power in a military coup--but now costs 5 rupees (US$0.08).
Prices on some key foodstuffs rose further since Bhutto’s killing--even doubling for some goods like vegetables--due to fears of shortages after transport links were cut.
Asad Sayeed, director of the Collective for Social Science Research, a private consultancy in Karachi, argued those numbers were far more important than broader measures of economic prosperity that benefit few.
“Populist politics was trying to bridge that divide that had occurred in society. Benazir Bhutto was an important symbol of that bridge,“ Sayeed said. “In a way, you’ve had your party for the last five years, and not only do you need to nurse the hangover but now you need to take care of other things because people around you are upset.“
Many blame the high prices for staple foods on rampant smuggling enabled by the lifting of laws that had banned the movement of wheat across regions, now allowing flour to be sold at higher prices in neighboring Afghanistan.
Others allege hoarding by suppliers to create artificial shortages.
Shopkeeper Mohammed Hafiz laments the state of his business at Karachi’s Empress Market.
“W\hen the prices are normal and affordable, nobody asks about the prices,“ he said as life slowly returned this week to the market. “But when the prices go up, nobody is coming to buy.“
AP.COM