Following last week's successful deployment of the EU's law-and-order mission to Kosovo, EULEX, the mission's chief has announced it has to open an office in Serbia's capital.

"We need connections with all regional countries as we do with Europol or Interpol," said Yves de Kermabon, referring to regional and international policing bodies.

De Kermabon added that the goal of the European Union mission is to establish the rule of law, and that the mission will do everything to attain this goal.

"The mission will aim to shed light in all pending criminal cases in Kosovo," he told Serbian media.

He repeated that EULEX is a technical mission and that there are enough experts to ensure proper performance of the mission.

Kosovo's political authorities insist that EULEX will have the full support of Kosovo, even though it is being deployed under the United Nations six-point plan, which Pristina has resisted because it addresses Serbia's concerns about the mission.

Pristina has urged the mission to take the responsibilities in accordance with Kosovo's Constitution and the blueprint for Kosovo's independence as drafted by former United Nations envoy, Martti Ahtisaari.

Kosovo Serbs are reluctant to accept the deployment of the EU's new law-and-order mission, EULEX, despite Belgrade's willingness to give the mission the green light. Read more: Kosovo Serbs `Not Ready for EULEX'

Earlier the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's report on wrapping up the world body's mission in Kosovo and begin the handover to a EU mission. Read more: UN Approves EU Kosovo Mission

But Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February and has been recognised by most European Union member states, is against the plan because it is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

This resolution, passed at the end of the 1998/99 conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, refers to Kosovo as Serbia's southern province, not as an independent state.

Serbia insists that the EU cannot deploy a new civilian mission in Kosovo to replace the UN administration unless the mission is neutral in status and does not put into action the Ahtisaari plan.

The plan envisages the gradual replacement of the administrative UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, which has been in the province since 1999, with an EU civilian mission of police and court officials.

Source: Balkan Insight