Coalition of “friends of independent Kosovo” forms International Steering Group
Fifteeen countries, called “a coaltion of friends of the independent state of Kosovo”, have formed in Vienna on Thursday the “International Steering Group” (ISG) and have designated Dutch diplomat Peter Feith as the “International Civilian Representative” (ICR) in the Serbian province, where the majority Albanian leaders have proclaimed a unilateral secession.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, February 28, 2008
Feith, whom the EU had nominated as its Special representative in Kosovo, said the ISG was an "imporant coalition of states, friends of the independent state of Kosovo".
It is made of countries which already have or announced they would recognize the secession of Kosovo: the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Turkey, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
Feith said the members of the ISG ordered the implementation of the Martti Ahtisaari plan, which the UN Security Council had rejected in 2007.
He said the 120-day transition period in Kosovo "had already begun" and that the the EU presence would cover the entire territory of Kosovo.
"We will not accept any violence, we want freedom of movement, and we will not accept any parallel security institutions in Kosovo", Feith said.
Any relations between the Kosovo Serbs and Serbia "must respect the authority of Pristina", he said.
The Kosovo Serbs and Serbia, however, reject the EU mission and the EU Special representative and consider their functioning in Kosovo as illegal.
The EU has decided to deploy in Kosovo and implement the Ahtisaari plan unilaterally.
