Jul 13, 2011

Feith: Time for Brussels to convince Serbia on the north


International Steering Group did not manage on Tuesday to find a formula for the future of supervision of Kosovo’s independence. Balkans state leaders who gave the mandate to Pieter Feith, of the International Civilian Office, to support independence of Kosovo will try to find a possible formula for extension of the ICO’s mandate for a few months, during their next meeting otherwise the mission will end in March 2012, when the allocated budget ends. However, international sources told Koha Ditore a Kosovo daily newspaper that supervision of independence and shutting down of the ICO will conclude within 2012.
In the conclusions reached by the member states that have recognized and supported Kosovo’s independence, it is requested from the Government and ICO to implement the remaining parts from Ahtisaari’s Package as soon as possible.
“It is the moment for the European Union to influence and to help convince Belgrade to cooperate, because the north, should adopt measures to help Kosovo and Serbia move towards EU membership. This is I believe the dynamics that we are expecting”, said  Pieter Feith – the head of ICO.
The novelty of this meeting was that Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi said publicly that the solution for northern Mitrovica could be found within the Ahtisaari’s package, which foresees creation of two municipalities. Thaçi proposed finding a creative solution, and mentioned as an initial idea Mitrovica as an integrated municipality of Serbs and Albanians. “We do not have time to lose if we really want decentralization to happen in the north that would lead us to the creation of the new municipality of Northern Mitrovica,” said PM Thaçi. 

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