Kosovo’s new European Union special envoy has taken a tough line against ethnic partition within this latest, and supposedly final, Balkan breakaway state.

“This country ... should not end up even with soft partition,” Peter Feith, the EU chief diplomat, told the Financial Times in an interview. The veteran Dutch diplomat, who arrived last week as special representative, will also head the western-backed supervisory office ensuring safeguards for ethnic minorities, including the 120,000 Serbs who overwhelmingly reject independence from Serbia.

His parallel mandate as International Civilian Representative (ICR) could start by next week, assuming the US and leading EU countries can persuade the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to cede responsibilities without the consent of Russia, Serbia’s ally on the UN Security Council.

The UN would make the handover in most parts of Kosovo 120 days later, in line with the status package embraced by Brussels and Kosovo’s government, Mr Feith says.

“The clock starts ticking the moment I’m appointed as ICR.” Two thousand EU-led police and justice officials will be deployed in the same four months “over the whole territory of Kosovo”, says Yves de Kermabon, the commander of the “rule of law” mission.

The UN protectorate admin istration, in place since 1999, has already ruled too long, damping the initiative of an entrepreneurial-minded population, Mr Feith says. Anticipating the hand-over, EU officials are gearing up for a donor conference in June to jump-start the economically crippled state with €700m-€1bn ($1.1bn-$1.5bn, £530m-£760m) worth of aid for the first two years.

Yet in the economic sphere, Mr Feith will be no more than the government’s “close adviser”. He plays down the potential for disagreements, or for the local authorities to deflect responsibility on to him for unpopular fiscal belt-tightening.

Although he will be empowered to dismiss elec ted officials, this will not be another Bosnia-Herzegovina, where international viceroys have become the foil for local politicians to avoid responsibility, Mr Feith promises.

Nato’s peacekeeping force of nearly 17,000 troops is due to stay in Kosovo indefinitely. James Lyon, Balkan adviser for the International Crisis Group, says: “Knowing how to play both sides the EU-Nato equation is essential to get things done.”

The other big lesson from Bosnia, Mr Feith says, is the importance of multi-ethnic integration. While Serbs can have decentralisation to preserve their culture and identity, that does not mean Kosovo must accept a stubborn “entity” that answers to Belgrade rather than Pristina, Mr Feith says.

Even Martti Ahtisaari, the UN envoy and chief architect of the status plan, admitted that decentralisation could mean de facto partition for the north. Not so, Mr Feith insists. If Serb-dominated northern Kosovo requires a “more gradual approach”, the UN can remain the main authority there – but only temporarily.

In the long run, Kosovo must become a multi-ethnic state. Serbs could orient themselves to Pristina over time if the EU does what it does best. “Open the taps and pour in money,” a US diplomat says.