The assassination of a leading adviser to Mr Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Kosova leader, is a blow to the attempt to bring peace and stability to his people and the region. It adds urgency to today's summit meeting between European Union leaders and the successor states of former Yugoslavia in Zagreb. This meeting is intended to extend symbolic and practical help to these states as they struggle to recover from a dreadful decade of war and ethnic atrocities. Mr Vojislav Kostunica's victory in the Yugoslav presidential elections gave the summit a major boost. This assassination illustrates the tragically thin line between success and failure in the Balkan region.
Mr Rugova himself recently won local elections in Kosovo, giving his party a decisive victory over those supporting rapid independence for the territory. European states anxious to help Mr Kostunica consolidate his rule in general elections next month have put Kosovo on the back burner. It is not represented at Zagreb; but this assassination will send shock waves through all the delegations there, especially the Albanian one. They too resent the attention paid to Mr Kostunica, believing they have a better case for priority aid and development. It will be a test of this short summit as to whether it can reassure sufficient of those attending that they have more to gain than lose from being there.
The key factor in convincing them is the promise of long-term accession to the European Union. That has been the animating principle behind the Stability Pact offered to Balkan States after the Kosovo War. It must be reaffirmed at the summit, not deflected by rivalries between the states attending or by arguments over complex and ill-defined aid programmes. Membership of a wider Europe is the best means of reconciling conflicting national claims, disputed borders and affirming minority rights and democratic transitions. It is also the best means to channel the development aid the region so badly needs.
It is one thing to state such a general principle, quite another to put it into practice. EU states are only coming to terms with an enlargement which could double its membership over the next ten years; they are ill prepared to accept that the Balkan States will be the net wave of states to accede. The stability pact itself has been dogged by bad administration, and bureaucratic wrangling. All too often there have been lengthy delays in getting aid to the people who need it.
It will be up to the EU heads of State and Government including the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to re-affirm their commitment to the Balkan region and their readiness to help it develop at Zagreb today. The French EU presidency deserves credit for taking the initiative to hold this meeting. They have skilfully used a carrot and stick approach in the run-up to the Serbian elections. The promise to lift sanctions if Mr Kostunica won was historically confirmed when Slobodan Miloslevic was removed from office. A short term aim of this summit is to underwrite Mr Kostunica's position in next month's parliamentary elections. But this summit has a more long-term ambition, to re-affirm the right of Balkan States to become part of European integration.