The transfer of security duties from the UN to the European Union was supposed to demonstrate the bloc's involvement and bolster peace in Kosovo. But no one seems very happy with what's become a mission of compromises.
Eulex troops were supposed to start taking over maintaining security in Kosovo from UN forces on Tuesday, Dec. 2, but that start has been delayed a week.
"We are ready, but there is some fine tuning to be settled first," Eulex spokesman Viktor Reuter told the dpa news agency in the Kosovan capital Pristina. The mission, which would see some 2,000 police officers and officials help Kosovo keep law and order, is now set to commence on Dec. 9.
The "fine tuning" refers to the implementation of a six-point plan announced last week by the United Nations and is aimed at opposition to the mission by Serbia, which claims Kosovo as part of its territory.
According the six-point plan, the UN would retain control over Mitrovica and other northern regions of Kosovo that border or are near Serbia. But that compromise has, in turn, upset ethnic Albanians.
And from the, "You've got to be kidding me" section...
Meanwhile Belgrade is lobbying NATO to lift a buffer zone, agreed upon in 1999, that prohibits the Serbian military from the immediate vicinity of the Serbia-Kosovo border.
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