Chad on, Kosovo delayed

The foreign ministers of the EU will formally launch the EU’s much-delayed peacekeeping mission to Chad when they meet in Brussels next Monday (28 January), but defer a similar decision on a civilian security mission in Kosovo, according to diplomats.

The Chad mission will support a joint UN-African Union (AU) peacekeeping effort in the neighbouring Sudanese province of Darfur, where the security situation has deteriorated in recent months. The UN-AU mission has been greatly delayed by the Sudanese government’s obstruction and problems in raising troops and equipment.

Already 3,600 troops have been pledged for the Chad mission, including a small contingent to be sent to the Central African Republic. They will be under the command of Lieutenant General Patrick Nash of Ireland. The numbers are set to rise to around 4,000, approximately half of them French, making it the EU’s most ambitious military engagement since Bosnia.

The EU’s most significant civilian mission - in Kosovo - will not be launched on 28 January despite the political agreement reached by EU leaders last month. The decision will be put off, possibly until another meeting of foreign ministers scheduled for 18 February.

Some 1,800 judges, prosecutors, policemen and border guards are set to be sent to Kosovo as part of this mission and planning has been going on for more than a year.

But uncertainties persist on the mission’s legal basis, with some governments nervous about the lack of explicit UN authorisation, and on the political strategy needed to prevent Serb-majority areas of Kosovo from defying the Albanian-majority government in Pristina.

The mission plan foresees "full implementation across the entire territory", according to a senior diplomat. But he also pointed out that the mission would "not necessarily" operate in a "totally benign environment", hence the need for a clear strategy to hold Kosovo together and for close co-ordination with Nato peacekeepers on the ground.

The most pressing concern, however, is the political situation in Serbia. The country will hold a crucial second round of its presidential election on 3 February, after a radical nationalist, Tomislav Nikoli´c, prevailed over pro-Western incumbent Boris Tadi´c in the first round (20 January). While few observers predict that Nikoli´cć will win, it is still a possibility and would add to the country’s apparent shift away from the EU and towards Moscow. The latest indication of such a shift is the signing, scheduled for Friday (25 January), of an energy pact between the two countries which would hand Russia’s state-owned Gazprom control over Serbia’s oil and gas industry.

The foreign ministers of the EU will formally launch the EU’s much-delayed peacekeeping mission to Chad when they meet in Brussels next Monday (28 January), but defer a similar decision on a civilian security mission in Kosovo, according to diplomats.