Friday, June 02, 2006

Kosovo Launches 3.5 Mln Euro EU-funded Project To Back Institutions for Status Talks

PRISTINA (Serbia and Montenegro), June 2 (SeeNews) - Kosovo has launched a 3.5 million euro ($4.48 million) project aimed at supporting the institutions of the U.N.-run Serbian province to prepare for the talks on its future status, an official said on Friday.

"The project "Support for Kosovo's Institutions for the status talks and for the EU Integration" is completely financed by the EU," Virtyt Gacaferi, spokesman of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kosovo, told SeeNews.

The European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) will manage the project and the UNDP will implement it, Gacaferi said.

Under the two-year project a technical assistance will be provided in the field of legislation and in the process of transferring of more power to Kosovo's local institutions from the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Gacaferi said.

On Thursday EAR started a 2.0 million euro project to support the Kosovo's Ministry of Justice, established in December last year.

Legally still a province of Serbia, Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since 1999 following NATO bombings that expelled Serb forces to end what Western powers said was repression of civilians in fighting an ethnic Albanian rebel insurgency. U.N.-brokered talks are underway to determine the future status of Kosovo.

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