Protesters wave Serbian flags during a protest rally against the 10th anniversary of Kosovo Independence in Belgrade, Serbia, 17 February 2018. EPA-EFE/Andrej Cukic

A new survey conducted between December 17 and 27 by Open Society Foundation and IPSOS Strategic Marketing, published on Thursday, showed only a small minority of respondents saw Kosovo as among the top problems facing the country.

“Speaking about the priorities that the Serbian government needs to deal with, the Kosovo issue is far behind economic issues, health and corruption,” the authors of the survey said.

Only eight per cent of respondents told the survey that they think solving the Kosovo issue should be the most important priority, while 22 per cent listed it among three most important.

More than half of the respondents said they do not follow news and events related to Kosovo, and slightly more than a quarter stated that they follow only the basic events or main news.

The former province, most of whose inhabitants are ethnic Albanians, proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008.

However, it de facto broke away in 1999 as a result of NATO’s air war on Serbia, which forced Serbia to withdraw its forces from the then province.

Most Western countries, including the US, recognised Kosovo long ago, but Kosovo’s statehood is still bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia, among others.

Serbian citizens also do not have a clear picture of the what the likely outcome for Kosovo is, the survey suggested.

It showed 19 per cent believe that Serbia will end up with same or less influence on Kosovo than it has today.

Another 20 per cent said they think that Kosovo “will become an independent state regardless of the effort of Serbia and that Serbia will lose all influence in Kosovo”.

“There is no single attitude among citizens about what solution is in Serbia’s best interest – although the largest percentage of citizens believe it would be the return of Kosovo to Serbia,” the survey said.

Some 28 per cent of citizens believe the best solution for Kosovo would be “essential autonomy within the state of Serbia”. Only seven per cent answered that the best solution for Serbia would be Kosovo as an independent state.

“More than three-quarters of citizens believe that Serbia has no influence on events in Kosovo, and a significant majority of citizens believe that with independence of Kosovo this influence would remain unchanged or be further reduced,” the survey underlined.

Many Serbs meanwhile see the Kosovo dispute as an impediment to Serbia’s advance, with 46 per cent believing that the Kosovo issue is key obstacle to the economic progress of Serbia.

Another 42 per cent answered that “Kosovo as a territory has already been lost; Serbia needs to worry about Serbs and their cultural heritage in Kosovo, but it is unreasonable that due to already lost territories we disown the chance for Serbia’s faster development that we are offered through membership in the European Union”.

The survey also showed that most citizens are not willing to make a “personal sacrifice” when it comes to Kosovo; 82 per cent don’t want to live in Kosovo, and 77 per cent don’t want to give any money for Kosovo, either.

“Although there is no clear position on the extent to which it is desirable for the people

to openly announce that Kosovo is lost, on average, 4 out of 10 citizens believe that a politician who did this would gain respect for the people,” the survey concluded.

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Serbia-Kosovo Relations