Brussels, 19/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - During the press conference that followed the meeting of the General Affairs Council on Monday, its president, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Piqué, described as "historic" the agreement reached on arrangements for deploying the European Union police force that is to take over from the UN force in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1 January 2003 (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4). It is to be noted that this is the first decision of this kind, but that, after that, there could be the effective deployment of a military crisis management force, which could succeed the NATO Amber Fox operation in Macedonia before the end of this year (Ed.: NATO has just decided to extend the Amber Fox operation until 26 June). Mr Piqué stressed that the mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina aims to support police training on respect of minorities and the rules of rule of law, as well as the fight against crime. It is an advisory and surveillance mission, he said, recalling that the mandate covers a period of three years, and is renewable. He specified that the mission will deploy 466 EU police staff, 67 experts and 289 persons recruited on the ground. The EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, pointed out that a team would be responsible for ensuring a smooth changeover from UN to EU. The Council called on relevant bodies to develop by its meeting of 11 March the legal instruments needed for the deployment of the police force.
Furthermore, the Council gave its support to the efforts made by Mr Solana to facilitate dialogue between Serbia and Montenegro with a view to reaching "constitutional arrangements" allowing both entities to remain within one and the same state entity. The Council especially requested that President Djukanovic give a positive response to the approaches made by Mr Solana. The latter noted some progress after a long discussion held on Sunday with the Montenegrin president, with whom he established a "non-paper on the way to move forward". Further contacts are foreseen for this week.
The Council also examined the report by the Court of Auditors on the financial situation of the European Reconstruction Agency and the implementation of aid in favour of Kosovo for the financial period 2000. It welcomes the fact that the Agency has "shown proof of a high level of efficiency"' and stresses that extending the agency's mandate to Yugoslavia and Macedonia "shows the important role that it plays for reconstruction in the region". It also stresses that the mission will lead the agency to manage, after this first stage of emergency aid, assistance for the creation of capabilities in Kosovo, and the normal rules of management will then apply. The Council subscribes tohte Court's recommendations and invites the Commission to report to it before the end of the year on the follow-up given.