Build-up of staff for Kosovo mission

The EU is ready to dispatch hundreds of police and judicial experts to Kosovo as soon as the province declares independence in the coming weeks, according to diplomats.

The EU has drafted job descriptions for the various positions it needs to fill and has received sufficient applications for a first round of staff identifications to be completed before Christmas, according to member state diplomats. Hiring will start once the mission’s legal status has been clarified.

It will take some 120 days for the mission, the most ambitious yet to be launched under the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), to reach its full strength of 1,800. During that time, security will remain the responsibility of Kosovo’s current UN administration and of NATO peacekeepers, who will remain in Kosovo. The EU mission will take over some functions from the UN and complement a new political office with some 75 EU staff and 200 local emloyees.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels on 14 December expressed their "readiness to assist Kosovo in the path towards sustainable stability, including by an ESDP mission". It is expected that EU foreign ministers will agree the next steps when they meet in Brussels on 28 January.

The EU is ready to dispatch hundreds of police and judicial experts to Kosovo as soon as the province declares independence in the coming weeks, according to diplomats.