A Kosovo-Albanian and a Spaniard run into each other in New York City. Spain is the biggest among the EU countries that have yet to recognise Kosovo's independence. Upon finding out that the other is from Spain the Kosovan gives him a close hug. The Spaniard is astonished. "Hey, you guys discovered America. That's enough for us," says the Kosovan.

The joke was told in a restaurant in Pristina by a top official from Kosovo's home affairs ministry. It was meant to illustrate that the more than 2 million Albanians in Kosovo agree on one thing: it was the Americans - not the Europeans - who 'liberated' them from Serbian rule after a Nato bombing campaign forced Serbia to relinquish control over its Kosovo province in 1999. Then US president Bill Clinton was given a statue in Pristina this week; he already had a street named after him.

Biggest EU mission ever

And yet the money for building an independent state in Kosovo all comes from the European Union. No other country in the world receives as much aid from Brussels as Kosovo: around 200 million euros a year for construction projects, education, the justice system, and reconciliation projects with Kosovo's roughly 100,000 Serb citizens. The EU also sent close to 2,000 police and legal experts to Kosovo last year in what is now the biggest EU mission ever, EULEX.

A special EU representative, Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, oversees the institutions in Kosovo for the international community. But unlike Bill Clinton, there are no Feith statues in Pristina. Instead, posters of Feith with his face crossed out appeared in the Kosovan capital last summer. Street protests were held against the EU, in which EU vehicles were trashed. Slogans on the walls of Pristina read: "Eulex, made in Serbia." The slogans appeared because the EU had signed police cooperation agreement with Serbia.

In his house in Pristina Pieter Feith dismissed the anti-EU protest as "a fringe phenomenon". There is a very vocal minority, led by the former student leader Albin Kurti, who are opposed to any foreign interference. But most Kosovo Albanians, said Feith, know very well how badly they need the EU. "I don't see any hostility at all," he said.

European perspective

Feith is fond of explaining that the EU's efforts are not just meant for the new country. Stability in Kosovo, where unemployment is at 40 percent, is important for the whole EU. The challenge here is not international terrorism like in Afghanistan, he said, but corruption and organised crime. "These are things we don't want to see spread out over Europe."

The EU has officially promised Kosovo "a European perspective", and the Kosovans themselves are convinced they will one day join the EU. The question is how, since five EU countries (Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus) still refuse to recognise the independence of Kosovo, even if they do support the EU's efforts there.

One thing is for sure: the army of EU officials, diplomats and aid workers will not be leaving Kosovo soon, whether it joins the union or not. Kosovo is a burden the EU has no choice but to carry, an EU official in Brussels said. "We will be rid of it only when Kosovo joins the EU, and not even then of course."

In front of the parliament building in Pristina two flags were flying: the Kosovan flag and the EU flag. Inside, Kosovan president Fatmir Sejdiu sat on a gilded wooden chair in his study. Sejdiu is a friendly and soft-spoken man, but he doesn't mince his words. The pro-Western government in Serbia is carrying out the same policies that Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic was, minus the war, he said. "We will never forget what was done to us, even if we won't take revenge," he said.

Border control

The EU mission is in Kosovo at the request of the Kosovo government, Sejdiu said. But as far as he is concerned international interference will be "as short as possible".

Is he happy about the work of the EU officials? "Yes, even if they could do more. They could be more efficient in dealing with the parallel structures in the north, for instance." The Kosovo Serbs have their own hospital and university in the north, paid for by Serbia. "And the border control is not as it should be either."

Border control is one of the areas the EU is supposed to help out with. The EU has guards stationed at the border with Serbia, but the Kosovo Serbs still refuse to recognise the dividing line between Serbia and Kosovo as a border. They refuse to pay import duties, and a lot of money is made by importing fuel from Serbia. The EU officials are left to register who goes in and out.

Kosovo is a complicated mission for EU officials stationed here. They see the anti-European slogans on the walls, but at the same time the Kosovans tell them the EU should be doing more for Kosovo.

These things are inevitable, said Feith, in a country that has been under international control for a decade. First came the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), then the UN, and now the EU. "It is a partnership between the EU and Kosovo, but we are dealing with young and inexperienced leaders who represent a young society where many people are ill-informed, and have rarely been outside Kosovo."

Expectations were very high from the start, said Feith, and progress has been made on the judicial level, the constitution, and decentralisation (to give the Kosovo Serbs a degree of autonomy). "But so far it hasn't led to the unemployment figures going down."