The six point Belgrade-UN plan under which the EU's police and justice mission in Kosovo would extend its reach into Serb-dominated northern Kosovo in return for as yet undisclosed concessions could lead the de facto ‘soft partition' of Kosovo permanent, a leading voice on Kosovo in the European Parliament has warned.

Joost Lagendijk, a European Parliament member who has followed Kosovo developments throughout the years told European Voice that he feared that the UN plan could make permanent the current political and administrative divisions in Kosovo. To prevent that, Lagendijk said, the European Parliament should be prepared to use its powers over the EU budget, from which EULEX is funded, if the EU mission began to apply two sets of law in Kosovo or to follow two separate chains of command.

Lagendijk said that it was in the Serbs' interest to have EULEX operate in the north since EULEX would investigate cases that the Kosovar authorities have shied away from because of their sensitive nature. This especially concerns property issues, organized crime and war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs.

Diplomats stressed that the EULEX deployment would unfold independently of any decisions taken at the UN and that the mission's mandate was not in question. They acknowledged, however, that EULEX will shy away from deploying in northern Kosovo where Serb mobs incited by Belgrade and extremist local leaders have reacted violently before and have said that they will not accept EULEX in any form.

According to Brussels sources of Serbian daily Dnevnik, EULEX will be operational in Kosovo by December 2. 

Another voice supporting the Kosovo government position is Albert Rohan, the Austrian diplomat that assisted President Ahtisaari in the talks on Kosovo status.

Rohan says "it is important for EULEX to deploy in the whole of Kosovo because this is one of the ways to implement the Ahtisaari Plan. Secondly, it is absolutely legitimate for the Kosovo government to oppose everything that is against the Constitution of Kosovo or that which created a sort of administrative division inside Kosovo, which is in contravention with the Ahtisaari Plan and the Constitution. 

Commenting on Serb conditions made to the EU for a neutral EULEX, Rohan says: "EULEX is a creature of the Ahtisaari Plan. Without the Ahtisaari Plan, we would not have EULEX. So it's a contradiction to deploy EULEX and say that it has nothing to do with the Ahtisaari Plan. Of course it does. It is a very important piece of our proposal.”

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that there are no Serb pre-conditions; however in a recent interview by Serb President Boris Tadic laid them out as a success of Serbia. When asked to comment on the effect to these conditions on the EU, Tadic expressed his belief that Serbia will join the EU with “Kosovo and Metohija” as an integral par.

Director of the US Institute for Peace (USIP) based in Washington DC Daniel Server said that the conditions for the deployment of EULEX in Kosovo represent the basis for the division of Kosovo.

"Serb proposal is not status-neutral, but tries to create a basis for the division of Kosovo and the further limitation of Prishtina's sovereignty," said Server. He added that the European Union and the United State s should not make extra pressure against Prishtina to accept Serb conditions for the deployment of EULEX.

One of the requests of the Kosovo authorities on the talks with Quint countries has been a confirmation of the guarantee of the territorial integrity of Kosovo by the Quint.