Luxembourg, 17/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday adopted conclusions on the political situation in the Balkans, stressing the need to fully cooperate with the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in terms of access to witnesses and archives. It called for Radovan Karadjic and Ratko Mladic's impunity to be lifted and for the governments concerned to spare no effort in arresting the two men and transferring them to the Tribunal.
Yugoslavia. The Council hailed the 14 March agreement establishing the new state of Serbia and Montenegro and the appointment of a committee to draft its Constitutional Charter (see EUROPE on 2 June, p.5). The Council called on the committee to begin work without delay, saying it was prepared to support the implementation of the agreement. The Council said that rapid progress on areas identified at recent meetings of the EU/Yugoslavia Task Force such as harmonisation of trade and customs policies and the implementation of a single market, are very important and should help the committee prepare for the autumn a report on the feasibility of launching negotiations for an Association and Stability Agreement, hailing the fact that Yugoslavia will chair the co-operation process for South-East Europe.
Kosovo. The Council expressed full support to the decision by UN Representative Michael Steiner to declare the 23 May resolution of the Kosovo Assembly on the "territorial integration of Kosovo" null and void, along with the border agreement of 23 February 2001 between Macedonia and Yugoslavia. Welcoming the first results in terms of the Common MINUK and Yugoslavia Document of 5 November 2001, it expressed consternation at the situation in the north of Kosovo, calling on the Yugoslav authorities to contribute to ensuring the UN's authority was respected throughout Kosovo.
Macedonia. The Council hailed the adoption of the electoral law and hoped the rest of the legislation under the Ohrid agreement would soon be passed. It hoped that all sides would prevent provocation and intimidation during the election campaign, expressing concern at the inability to reach a stand-by agreement with the IMF. It instructed the relevant bodies to prepare a decision to extend the mandate of the Special Representative Alain Le Roy until the end of 2002.
Bosnia Herzegovina. The Council highlighted the contribution made by the outgoing High Representative Wolfgang Petrisch, expressing support for his successor Lord Ashdown.
Le Roy hopes Seville will agree on EU taking over from NATO
Speaking to reporters, the EU's Special Envoy to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Alain Le Roy, highlighted progress since the Ohrid Agreement since apart from isolated incidents, calm had returned to the country and around 155,000 of the total 170,000 refugees had been able to return. As at Tuesday evening, 90% of the legislation under the Agreement will have been adopted, including a few laws allowing concrete implementation of the decentralisation that were adopted on 26 January 2002. These results had only been achieved thanks to constant diplomacy by his office and the efforts of representatives of Member States, the US and other international partners, explained Le Roy, mentioning the healthy co-ordination in situ that provided that at the end of the day, the Common Foreign and Security Policy functioned very well. Noting that his office only had a dozen staff and a total budget of EUR 25 000 a month, he said that this was enough to carry out good work but that nothing was yet definite and the stability of Macedonia could still be jeopardised by border issues with Kosovo as had been shown by the problems caused by the recently adopted resolution of the Kosovo parliament that had immediately been denounced by the international community; potential electoral fraud and violence during the September 2002 election campaign; and the huge number of weapons still in circulation. Le Roy said it was essential that an international civilian and military presence was ensured until June 2003 and hoped that the Seville Summit would reach agreement on the EU taking over from NATO, whose mandate for Amber Fox expires on 26 October 2002. EUROPE points out that breaking deadlock over EU-NATO co-operation through Greece agreeing on the extent to which Turkey would be involved, will be essential if the 700 NATO soldiers are to be replaced by the EU's first CFSP mission.