Friday, May 23, 2008

Gearing Up for 15 June

Everyone seems to be gearing up for 15 June when the Kosovo constitution is due to take effect.  The International Steering Group has said that Kosovo is ready to take over full authority and cited progress made in the past three months by the government.  The US Under Secretary of State made a comment that the UN was beginning to downsize but that is inaccurate as the mission has orders from NY to continue at full-strength and at normal operation.  Any downsizing would be a natural attrition due to staff departing for better job security but we will see what happens. 
Meanwhile, the EU is still working on staffing for their police mission called EULEX and the US had confirmed that it negotiating its exact role in the mission and will most likely participate.  It is expected that the US contingent will reduce in number from 220 officers to 80 officers for Kosovo under EULEX.
There will essentially be three different EU components working in Kosovo:  EULEX, EU Special Rep Office, European Commission.  Peter Feith who is featured predominantly in the news is the Special Representative while the EULEX mission will be headed by Yves de Kermabon.  Kermabon was recently in the news stating that UNMIK will no longer be the "main player" in Kosovo soon.

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