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The legal problems encountered by EU-Lex, the EU mission in Kosovo, could soon be solved, with diplomats currently in talks over plans to share the leadership with UNMIK, the United Nations peace-keeping mission.

Background: The EU decided in February 2008 to deploy a 2,200 strong 'Rule of Law' mission to Kosovo under the name 'EU-Lex Kosovo'. Its deployment has already started, after having been delayed for both technical and political reasons.  The initial objective was for EU-Lex to take over from UNMIK, the civilian mission established in the Serbian province following the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 in June 1999. But Serbia and Russia strongly protest against EU-Lex, because this mission has not been endorsed by the UN Security Council (EurActiv 16/04/08). The objective of setting up an EU mission in Kosovo is highly political. The EU has ambitions to take over the post-crisis management of a territory on European soil. It previously failed to do so in 1999 when it had to resort to NATO to stop the ethnic cleansing and acts of extreme violence perpetrated by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. 

Under plans originally foreseen by the EU, the 2,200 strong EU-Lex mission would eventually replace UNMIK as the leading rule-of-law mission in the new-born state of Kosovo.  But faced with rejection from Serbia and Russia, which have both challenged the mission's legal legitimacy, diplomats are now drawing up plans for the two missions to co-exist under joint command.  The solution would provide the EU with a face-saving trick, according to diplomats who were speaking to EurActiv on condition of anonymity. This is because UNMIK has already been accepted by Serbia and Russia, which has a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. 

Since the morning of December 9, we are to be present in the (Serb-dominated) north, in the south, and all over Kosovo. We are to have more than 100 people in the north, including policemen, the prosecutors, the judges, customs officers and the customs department,” declared Kermabon. The announcement from EULEX says that around 1,400 people international staff and some hundreds of local personnel from EULEX will have at its disposal the necessary number of workers for its initial operation.

Kermabon declared that starting from December 9, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, is to end its mission, and EULEX is to be installed. “UNMIK switched off and EULEX switched on,” he told Balkan Insight.

The EU's police and civil administration mission for Kosovo, EULEX, is set to start work side-by-side with the existing UN mission, UNMIK, in a legal and organisational mess surrounding Kosovo's struggle to establish independence.

A new UN resolution drafted in 2007 was to see UNMIK cede powers to the government of an independent Kosovo, supported by the 2,200-strong EULEX police and customs force and overseen by an EU special representative and his International Civilian Office. Russia blocked the new UN resolution but Kosovo declared independence unilaterally on 17 February, creating the current situation in which just 20 of the 27 EU states have recognised Kosovo independence and just 300 EULEX officials have so far been deployed.

One year after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, MEPs on Thursday (5 February) called on all EU countries to recognise Europe's newest state. The European Parliament "encourages those EU Member States which have not already done so to recognise the independence of Kosovo," reads the resolution adopted by MEPs in Strasbourg today.

The document was approved by a large majority - 424 MEPs voted in favour, 133 - against, while 24 abstained. Kosovo declared unilateral independence from Serbia on 17 February last year and it has so far been recognised by 54 states worldwide, including the US and most EU countries. To date, five EU member states – Romania, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus and Spain – have not recognised its independence. In the resolution, the parliamentarians also welcomed the "successful deployment" of the European police and justice mission EULEX to Kosovo. After having faced numerous delays, EULEX entered its operational phase two months ago – on 9 December – taking over police, justice and customs tasks from United Nations personnel in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, officials and legal professionals in Kosovo have said say they find the EULEX-operated courts better than UNMIK's judicial authorities, according to news portal Balkan Insight. "There are great differences from the previous judiciary," Osman Kryeziu, chief prosecutor in Pristina's District Court, was quoted as saying. "There's less bureaucracy, more cooperation and commitment to work. EULEX judges have a completely different working culture," he added. For his part, Azem Vllasi, a lawyer in Pristina who worked in both the UNMIK and EULEX judicial systems, as well as in the local one, told Balkan Insight that EULEX was already proving to have the most professional one. "My experience shows there are essential differences. There is more professionalism and greater obedience to the law and regulations [with EULEX]," Mr Vllasi said.

After a re-run of the general election in Macedonia and the entry into force of Kosovo's new constitution on Sunday, EU foreign ministers will convene today (16 June) to review the situation in the neighbouring Western Balkans.

Ministers will likely welcome the peaceful re-run of parliamentary elections in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Sunday, just two weeks after ethnic violence marred the first elections on 1 June. 

While Kosovo is not on the foreign ministers' agenda, it is unlikely that they will be able to avoid the topic, after the fledgling state's constitution entered into force on Sunday.  The EU is also poised to take over policing and justice tasks from the United Nations after the UN's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week put forward proposals to "reconfigure" the activities of the UN Mission UNMIK to allow the EU to deploy its contested EU-Lex police mission there (EurActiv 29/05/08).  "It is my intention to reconfigure the structure and profile of the international civil presence [...] enabling the European Union to assume an enhanced operational role," said the secretary general in letters to Kosovo and Serbian leaders.  But the handover, which is foreseen in Kosovo's constitution, remains strongly opposed by both Serbia and Russia, who insist that the EU mission is illegal because it has not been approved by the UN Security Council. 

EULEX, the EU's mission in Kosovo, is experiencing difficult times as more than 20 of its vehicles were overturned and damaged by ethnic Albanian extremists yesterday (25 August). Moreover, Serbs living in the northern part of the province have demanded the departure of the Union's representatives.

An agreement to be signed between EULEX and Belgrade, designed to help solve a 'visa problem' for Serbian nationals, apparently became an irritant for Albanian extremists, who overturned 28 SUV cars belonging to the EU mission in the capital Pristina.  Many Albanian Kosovars insisted that it was up to Kosovo, not EULEX, to sign any international agreements

The Serbian authorities however have also come under fire of Serbian extremis circles, who claim that its signing the agreement amounts to the recognition of Kosovo by Belgrade. "The only goal of the agreement is to have an adequate exchange of information with EULEX, in the goal of stopping all possible incidents and conflicts in the province," said Goran Bogdanović, Serbian minister for Kosovo. He made clear that the agreement was needed to allow Brussels to lift visa requirements for Serbian nationals, and expressed hope that the document would be signed soon.