Click:hiding items as per
Auditors call EU mission in Kosovo ‘ineffective’
Report found objectives had not been defined.
The European Union’s largest-ever crisis-management mission has been ineffective and plagued by delays, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors published yesterday (30 October).
The report found that progress in strengthening the rule of law in Kosovo has been slow. It attributed this primarily to conditions in the country, notably the continued control of north Kosovo by ethnic Serbs financed by Serbia and a lack of commitment from Kosovo’s administration, especially in the fight against corruption. But the report also said that there are “significant areas where better management by the European External Action Service and Commission could have made EU assistance more effective”.
In the period covered by the audit (2007-11), the EU provided some €680 million to support the rule of law in Kosovo, the biggest per-capita recipient of EU aid in the world.
The report found that objectives had not been clearly defined and that there were “major co-ordination challenges” between the EU’s judicial and police mission (Eulex) and Commission projects. Eulex, with its 2,500 staff, still suffers from understaffing: last year, when the audit was carried out, Eulex was at 75% of its authorised staff levels. The auditors said that one-year secondments were too short, especially for organised-crime investigators and senior magistrates, and that member states frequently sent unqualified candidates.
The auditors called on the EU to ensure that objectives for assistance have benchmarks so that progress can be measured. The EEAS and the Commission should improve their co-ordination and prepare the Commission for taking over Eulex’s capacity-building functions once the mission phases out. The member states should ensure that qualified candidates are available for authorised staff level to be reached, and staff should be allocated to reflect the importance of particular issue areas.
In a joint reply to the auditors, the EEAS and the European Commission wrote that they “concur with the assessment and find it positive that the Court’s findings confirm progress in some areas”. They agreed with the recommendations and said that some – for example, the development of benchmarks to measures progress against objectives – had already been implemented.
Click Here: cheap all stars rugby jersey