Russia Blasts EU over Kosovo, Balkan Insight

21 May 2008 Belgrade _ Russia has slammed the EU’s new law and order mission to Kosovo as ‘illegal.’
“The deployment of the mission, known as EULEX, requires a separate resolution of the United Nations Security Council,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Boris Malakhov said in a statement.
The current United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, has been left in limbo after an initial European plan to replace the world body as the main international supervisory body in Serbia’s former southern province.
The UN’s reluctance to leave, given the ongoing Serbian and Russian opposition, has seen the EU delay the date for full deployment of EULEX from June 15.
After a series of talks on the future international mission in Kosovo, the gap between the UN and the EU remains wide as both organisations struggle to create a balance between Western and Russian interests in region.
The EU rejected a Russian proposal to keep EULEX under the UN umbrella, leaving even future options for all sides.
UNMIK personnel have had their contracts tentatively extended until the end of year, which comes as a surprise for most international officials who expected that UN mission would cease to exist right after Kosovo’s new constitution comes into force on June 15.
Some 40 countries have so far recognized Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence in past 95 days, with Russia and Serbia strongly opposing the move, calling it a dangerous precedent and major breach of international law.
In addition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, backed by his counterparts from India and China, recently called for a resumption in negotiations over Kosovo’s status but the initiative was immediately rejected by the United States and Kosovo Albanian leaders.
The EU plans to deploy some 2,200 personnel in Kosovo in next few months, hoping to keep the territory’s reforms and political developments under close watch, fearing that disputes between local Albanians and Serbs could seriously harm regional stability.
The EULEX mission was envisaged under the blueprint for Kosovo’s ’supervised independence’ devised by former UN envoy for Kosovo’s final status, Martti Ahtisaari.
Both Belgrade and Moscow rejected the plan arguing that under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, passed at the end of the 1998-1999 conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, and which still technically remains in force, only the UN can administer Kosovo on Belgrade’s behalf.