Mamberto: EU is not going to replace UN Mission in Kosovo

KosovaLive

31 January 2006

The Head of the European Commission Liaison Office in Kosovo Ambassador Giorgio Mamberto said in an exclusive interview with KosovaLive that the European Union is not going to administrate Kosovo.

Giorgio Mamberto

Ambassador Mamberto insists that Kosovo should be administered by Kosovars, whereas the EU will facilitate this process of integration into the European family. �The EU is not going to be the successor of UNMIK. There will be no �EUMIK�. It is not our will nor do we have the capacities to administrate Kosovo should be administrated by Kosovars,� he said.

However, Mamberto says that there are some fields where everyone agrees that Kosovo needs some international involvement, such as police and justice. �We are therefore currently discussing an eventual involvement of the EU in these fields,� he said.

Mamberto said that the way towards EU integration goes via fulfilling standards, which are of political and economic and institutional nature (the so-called Copenhagen criteria).