Letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign
and Commonwealth Affairs from the Chairman of the Committee
Thank you for the material which you and your
officials have provided in follow-up to the evidence which you
gave to the Committee on 10 December. There is one further issue
which the Committee has asked me to pursue with you, namely the
EU ESDP mission in Kosovo, EULEX. You discussed this with the
Committee on 10 December at Qq 63-64.
In your evidence, you said that there was no
contradiction between the EULEX mandate on the one hand, and,
on the other, the UK's support for Kosovo's independence, under
a single constitution applied according to the Ahtisaari plan,
and with "no parallel court, police or judicial structures"
(Q 64). The Government's position would appear to raise two issues:
1. The `status-neutral' nature of EULEX, as
opposed to the independence of Kosovo set out in the Ahtisaari
plan, Kosovo's declaration of independence and constitution, and
the UK's recognition of Kosovo.
2. The roles of the EU and UN missions in the
Serb-dominated areas of Kosovo as opposed to the rest of Kosovo.
The Committee would like clarification from
you of EULEX's remit and role in the Serb-dominated areas of Kosovo,
in the light in particular of the six-point UN plan which has
been agreed for the deployment of EULEX and the reconfiguration
of UNMIK. Why does the Government consider the special provisions
which are to apply to the EULEX mission in Serb-dominated areas
not to undermine the territorial integrity and unitary nature
of independent Kosovo which the Government supports?
With his permission, I enclose a copy of a note
provided to Sir John Stanley by the House of Commons Library on
these matters. The Committee would welcome any comment on its
content which the FCO would like to make.
A reply by 9 February 2009 would be much appreciated.
19 January 2009
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