Brussels, 24/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The General Affairs and External Relations Council, to be held on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, is expected to adopt a common position without debate for launching a police mission in Macedonia. The mission will be launched during the month of December to take over from the EU military operation in the country, Concordia, whose mandate comes to an end on 15 December.
The police mission will mainly be aimed at training the Macedonian police according to European standards and at helping it to combat organised crime. It will be composed of around 200 police personnel from Member States and also from third countries wishing to take part. The budget for the "joint costs" of the mission are expected to amount to around EUR 7.3 million (the forecast amount) while most of the costs (including salaries) will be covered by the participant states.
It was at the request of President Boris Trajkovski, in a letter to Javier Solana, the EU's High Representative for CFSP, that the EU envisaged sending a police force to the country and began the process of planning the operation. EUROPE also recalls that the EU Special Representative in Macedonia, Belgian national Alexis Brouhns, had considered the country's situation "rather fragile", a view expressed during his meeting with the EU Political and Security Committee (EUROPE of 13 September, p.5).