International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion On Kosovo's Declaration of Independence - Reactions

Reactions

Reactions to the verdict came from states, international organisations and non-state actors. Kosovo praised the verdict and said it can now move on with more recognitions and possible memberships of the EU and the UN. Serbian reactions were negative to the verdict while policymakers met in an emergency session to discuss Serbia's next steps to preserve its "territorial integrity" while vowing never to recognise Kosovo as an independent state, despite Kosovar calls to the contrary. The EU countries that recognised Kosovo praised the verdict and call for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, they also called for other states to now recognise Kosovo; all five EU states that have not recognised Kosovo stated that the decision is a narrow view only on the text of the declaration and they would not change their positions. Other states said nothing would change as a result. All supranational bodies supported the verdict in at least some part; while non-state actors hailed the precedent this opinion allows for. The majority opinion was subject to legal criticism by some commentators (and by the dissenting justices).

Karabakhi and Bosnian reactions were the most notable. The former celebrated the opinion as a precedent set and signalled a possibility of asking the ICJ for a similar opinion on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; while the latter was heavily split with politicians from the Republika Srpska saying that at some point in the future it could legally declare independence, and politicians from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina saying that the opinion should not harm the country's status. Other notable reactions were Russia's opposition to the verdict, while Abkhazia and South Ossetia hailed it.