http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=02&dd=06&nav_id=47525
Fleiner: 1244 provides no basis for EU mission 6 February 2008 | 18:43 | Source: Tanjug FRIBOURG -- Thomas Fleiner says that the valid UN resolution on Kosovo gives no legal basis to EU's mission plans. Fleiner, who is a Swiss constitutional law professor and federalism expert, as well as the legal adviser to Belgrade's Kosovo team, dismissed in a statement to Tanjug the argument of some European diplomats that the legal basis for sending a EU mission to Kosovo could be found in article 10 of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. "Article 10 authorizes the UN secretary-general to establish, along with relevant international organizations, an international civilian presence in Kosovo so as to secure a transitional administration, with which the people of Kosovo could enjoy essential autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," he explained. Fleiner added that Article 10 calls for essential autonomy of Kosovo within Yugoslavia, and now its legal successor Serbia, and that Kosovo, if it declares independence, "will by so doing reject Resolution 1244 because it does not want essential autonomy." According to him, that means that every international mission in Kosovo has to be linked to essential autonomy of the province, and "in no way to possible or even likely declaration of independence." "The EU has made it cleat that it is sending a mission as part of preparations for the independence of Kosovo, which would constitute a violation of Resolution 1244 article 10," said Fleiner, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Fribourg. The Swiss expert pointed out that Resolution 1244 also requires "the full cooperation of FRY in its implementation," or that "one of the partner parties responsible for implementing the solution prescribed by the resolution is FRY, or its legal successor Serbia." "That means that all matters relating to the implementation of the resolution have to be done in cooperation with the chief partner. Once Kosovo becomes an illegal independent state, states that are supposed to cooperate in the implementation of the resolution will no longer have a partner with whom they can cooperate," Fleiner concluded.
