Commission backs Kosovo census

Date: 02/03/06

The European Commission is to lend its backing to a census in Kosovo to assess the province’s ethnic make-up.

After much hesitation, Olli Rehn, the enlargement commissioner, is expected to put forward proposals to assist the Kosovo authorities at a meeting of the college of commissioners on 14 March.

Measures will include giving Eurostat, the Commission’s statistical office, the power to nominate members of the steering committee running the census.

The exact balance between Serbs and Albanian Kosovars in the province is politically sensitive, as are figures for the internally displaced.

The EU had been sceptical about providing assistance for the census, fearing that the local statistical services were not capable of producing reliable figures and that they would not comply with international standards.

But experts believe that such a census is essential to decide policy on Kosovo’s future.

This week, during a visit to Brussels, a top United Nations diplomat again called on the Union to help conduct the census, which he described as crucial for economic development and decentralisation of the region.

Talks began on the province’s final status in Vienna last month when protection of Serbs and other minorities and decentralisation were the focus of discussions.

Søren Jessen-Petersen, special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo appeared before the political and security committee of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday (28 February) to urge EU involvement.

"The census is key...but this is not something that can happen overnight," he said. "It would be very difficult to have comprehensive government reform without a census, [or] a credible economic development plan."

Jessen-Petersen said he would like to see the census take place in the second half of 2006 but added that compiling the data would take some time.

"What we know from other parts of the world is that this will take at least 12 months."

The last reliable census was conducted in 1981. A census in 1991 was boycotted by Kosovar Albanians.

In November the Commission announced it was providing EUR 1m of support for the Kosovo Statistics Office.

Article reports that the European Commission was expected, at its meeting on 14 March 2006, to lend its backing to a census in Kosovo to assess the province's ethnic make-up. This was after much hesitation given the political sensitivity of establishing the exact balance between Serbs and Albanian Kosovars in the province.

European Commission: DG Enlargement: Potential candidate countries: Kosovo issues http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/potential-candidates/kosovo/index_en.htm

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