Nato has welcomed the announcement that the EU’s law-and-order mission, EULEX will be deployed very soon but urged its authority extends all across Kosovo.

“We want to see EULEX deployed throughout Kosovo,” Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.

Nato foreign ministers reiterated in their final communiqué after a two day meeting that, “The prompt deployment of the European Union’s Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) throughout all of Kosovo is an urgent priority.”

The European Union’s foreign policy Javier Solana spoke to Nato foreign ministers on Wednesday morning, December 3 2008, and confirmed again the intention that the EU mission will be present very soon throughout all of Kosovo’s territory.

According to Scheffer, this promise was welcomed by allies.

Nato “took note” the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a statement by its Presidency in support of the reconfiguration (or wrapping up) of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK. 

 “We strongly encourage Kosovo’s authorities and Serbia to cooperate fully with all relevant actors during and after the period of the transfer of authority.”

The alliance called all parties to refrain from violence and in this context, a special appeal was addressed to Serbia.

“We call upon Serbia to influence the parties concerned in Kosovo to abstain from violence,” Nato foreign ministers stressed in their final document.

Regarding Kosovo, Nato confirmed their readiness to play a role in “the standing down of the Kosovo Protection Corps and the establishment of the Kosovo Security Force on the basis of our voluntary trust funds.”

EU officials have stated that the full deployment of the EULEX mission will begin on December 9, a week later than previously scheduled. Read more: EU's Kosovo Mission Delayed by a WeekLast Wednesday, November 26 2008, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Ban’s report on wrapping up the world body’s mission in Kosovo and begin the handover to a EU mission. Read more: UN Approves EU Kosovo Mission

The six-point plan for the deployment of EULEX, as Ban’s recommendations are called were initially opposed by Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February and has been recognised by most European Union member states, because the plan is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

This resolution, passed at the end of the 1998-1999 conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, refers to Kosovo as Serbia’s southern province, not as an independent state.

Serbia insists that the EU cannot deploy a new civilian mission in Kosovo to replace the UN administration unless the mission is neutral in status and does not put into action the plan of former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari – which envisages internationally-supervised independence for Kosovo.

Belgrade also insists that the mission must be confirmed by the UN Security Council, in which it has a strong ally with veto power – Russia.

The plan envisages the gradual replacement of the administrative UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, which has been in the province since 1999, with an EU civilian mission of police and court officials.

Pristina had presented its own rival four-point plan which calls for the deployment of EULEX, according to the plan stated in Kosovo’s independence declaration, the Kosovo constitution, and the Ahtisaari plan.

Source: Balkan Insight