Brussels, 24/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - During his first visit to Brussels as head of the EU observation mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia), Ambassador Hansjörg Haber said the EU has met its commitments under the Sarkozy-Medvedev plan, signed on 12 August this year, providing for observers to be deployed by 1 October. He nonetheless said the Russian party has not yet fully met its commitments. “Russian peacekeepers have completely met their obligation to withdraw from the areas adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia” but “to our knowledge, troop withdrawal in accordance with Article 5 of the Sarkozy-Medvedev plan (Ed: which provides for Russian forces to pull back to checkpoints prior to the outbreak of hostilities) has not been carried out”, the diplomatic source said. Russia still has troops in the Kodori Valley and the Akhalgori Valley, considered by Moscow as part of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian territories respectively. “We would be delighted (to have the possibility) of going to both sides of the administrative border”, said Mr Haber, stressing that the EU is currently conducting talks at “diplomatic” level along these lines. The German diplomat was nonetheless pleased with progress made by the mission less than one month after its deployment. Currently, there are 225 observers on the ground and nearly all persons (some 35,000) displaced by the conflict have been able to return home, the diplomat said, specifying that the mission will now focus on “stabilising” and “normalising” the situation. (A.By./transl.jl)