European Union leaders agreed last Friday to deploy around 1,800 police and security personnel to Kosovo, a volatile Serbian province expected to announce its independence from Serbia any day now. The EU’s decision to beef up its presence in the Balkans is further evidence of its desire to be the primary facilitator of Kosovo’s independence.

Ever since Germany and the Vatican recognized the breakaway states of Croatia and Slovenia in 1991, Europe’s largest states have maintained a subtle divide-and-conquer policy in the Balkans in an effort to secure European dominance of this strategic corridor.

Nothing has changed in their current approach to Kosovo. Concurrent with sending more forces into Kosovo, the EU is attempting to woo the Serbians into agreeing to Kosovo’s independence with a series of platitudes and promises.

EUbusiness reports (emphasis ours throughout):

“This is the clearest signal that the European Union could possibly give that it intends to lead on the whole issue of Kosovo’s future, its status and its role in the region,” Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates told reporters after an EU summit in Brussels.In a friendly gesture to Serbia, which implacably opposes Kosovan independence, the EU leaders in their written conclusions also voiced confidence that Serbia’s “progress on the road towards the EU, including candidate status, can be accelerated.”French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Serbia had “a future” in the European Union “if it respects human rights and the independence of Kosovo.”

Europe, especially Germany and the Vatican, has a long and sordid history with the Balkans. Today the media largely misreport what is unfolding in Kosovo because people fail to grasp this history. Few understand the forces motivating Europe to take the lead in supporting Kosovo’s play for independence. To learn more about this eye-opening history, and why Germany and Europe are such avid supporters of Kosovo’s independence today, read The Rising Beast—Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.