SLOVENIA AGREES WITH U.S. VIEWS TO RESOLVE KOSOVO

1. (C) In a December 12 meeting with ADCM, MFA Director for
Southeastern Europe Leon Marc expressed agreement with U.S.
views to resolve Kosovo status (reftel). Marc asked about
the timeline for a coordinated declaration of independence,
explaining that Slovenia was not just looking at Serbian
presidential elections, but would also like to see the SAA
signed. Marc inquired as to U.S. views about waiting until
after the second round of Presidential elections, tentatively
set for February 3. Marc expected that Serbia would likely
fix the election dates in the next few days. According to
the MFA's analysis, the only legal basis for postponing the
elections once they are scheduled would be if the government
of Serbia declared a state of emergency; however, if Kosovo
had not declared independence, there would be little basis
for doing so. Marc said that Slovenia's contacts in Pristina
believed that waiting until after February 3 would not deeply
affect the Kosovars, but he was interested in USG views. He
noted that Slovenia strongly disagreed with the elements that
Russia had passed around for a Presidential statement calling
for negotiations to continue, and also asked for our views
about the Russia angle.

Concern about Regional Implications


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2. (C) Marc welcomed our point about Serbian threats to
retaliate against other states. He noted that the EU had not
looked at this enough, but that Serbian retaliatory actions
would affect Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria, among others.
He appreciated our emphasis on Serbia's Euro-Atlantic
future. He mentioned that the letter to the EU from the EU
four in the Contact Group was very good, especially the
letter's stress on regional implications and the need to send
a positive message to Serbia.

Legal Points


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3. (C) Marc said that Slovenia agreed with the USG analysis;
however, he noted that several EU countries, including
Germany, had a problem with the legal basis for deploying an
ESDP. He added that although they thought they were on shaky
legal ground, they were not saying that in public. He told
us that there was an ongoing discussion within the EU about
the ESDP mission - the ESDP mission head had no problem
reporting to the UN, but wanted to keep the chain of command
with Brussels. Marc stated that Slovenia thought it would
need to stretch 1244 to accommodate the ICO mandate, but that
it was legally doable, though politically sensitive for
Slovenia.
COLEMAN