The European Commission and the countries that fund it like to show off the good work that it is doing in building Kosovo. That is all commendable and truthful. However, very little is said about how European tax payer money is being used to undermine Kosovo at the same time. While this could look strange and improbably to a  distant outside observer, those only vaguely familiar with European discordance will immediately recognize this.

Serbia is in great financial trouble, and therein lies the opportunity of the decade. Serbian Government has been forced to fire employees and reduce wages. The average wage in Serbia has fallen drastically and will continue to do so during the crisis years. Without EU financial help, the current government is likely to fall.

And rightfully so, the EU has stepped in to help. It has offered visa-free travel and ascension talks. It has offered hundreds of millions of euros, some of which are being used to undermine Kosovo. While a Serbia in crisis asks and gets financial help from the EU, at the same time it will send  EUR45 million to support its parallel structures in Kosovo. These funds are decided and advertised publicly.

Mind you, they are not destined to support the Serb community, because those Serbs in central Kosovo who are at a more precarious economic situation but see cooperation with Kosovo authorities as key to their survival here are not getting any of this money. This money is dedicated strictly to those Serbs who refuse any contact with the Kosovo authorities and do Belgrade's bidding.

Ironically, when on January 13  the so called Serb Minister for Kosovo and Metohija went to Shtrepce before he was kicked out of the country for breaking the pledge not to be involved in politics of a foreign country, he was promising money to the local Serbs if they choose not to cooperate with the Kosovo authorities: Serb government largess enabled by EU taxpayers' money under the nose of another very expensive EU rule of law mission.

While all this is going on, some of the stated aims of the EULEX mission in Kosovo are the integration of parallel structures into the mainstream Kosovo life to the tune of  EUR200 million a year.

Even the recent NATO assessment on the situation in Kosovo, made up of most of the same EU countries, clearly emphasizes that the only real threat to Kosovo are the illegal parallel structures which Serbia is financially supporting.
 
Last November, reliable media  reported that major Serbia mafia syndicate mobsters gathered in northern Kosovo under the auspices of the Serbia illegal parallel structures operating there. The same sources report that organized crime and illegal parallel structures of Serbia operating in Kosovo work hand in hand.

Indeed, Kosovo  as a nascent state in the Balkans was seen as in desperate need for monitoring support in establishing a strong legal system, leading to the EULEX deployment.

Up to this day, Kosovo government has been advised to not overreact in order to avoid ethnic tension and perhaps alleviate the path to the integration of the Serb minority in the Kosovar society. The idea was somehow aborted when EULEX signed a police agreement with Serbia, which only has emboldened its illegal activities with parallel structures in Kosovo.

Such are the ironies of the EU foreign policy.