THE SUMMIT OF Baltic states in Macedonia on Wednesday called an end to a decade of war among the republics and peoples of former Yugoslavia. It admitted the present Yugoslavia to membership in the Balkan Stability Pact.
This is an agreement under which the European Union plans to invest $4.5 billion over seven years to bring the little countries of southeastern Europe closer to the economic and infrastructural standards of Western and Central Europe.
By gaining recognition for himself and for Serbia, the part of truncated Yugoslavia that elected him president, Vojislav Kostunica brought immediate benefits to the Serbian people. He also gained recognition for the authority that he has not quite consolidated in Belgrade.
The disputes between Serbian nationalism and neighboring nationalisms are by no means resolved.
Albanian human rights campaigners from Kosovo still rot in Serbian prisons as suspected terrorists. Bosnia understands that many Serbs still favor its dismemberment. Albania still wants independence for Kosovo Province.
All Serbia's neighbors want the former president, Slobodan Milosevic, delivered to the international tribunal in The Hague, which Mr. Kostunica is pledged not to do.
But suddenly, these and other differences are on a plane where they can be discussed.
The next step is probably Yugoslavian membership in the United Nations, which Mr. Milosevic refused on the ground that his government still represented all the former Yugoslavia. Among those heaping legitimacy on Mr. Kostunica was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke.
The summit of little powers in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, went a long way toward ending Serbia's pariah status. The sooner that is complete, the sooner the reconstruction of the Balkans can begin.
