Pieter Feith, a Dutch diplomat who served as International Civilian Representative and EU Special Representative for Kosovo, writes in an op-ed for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think-tank that an important lesson of the Kosovo experience deals with the model used by the ICO (International Civilian Office) to supervise Kosovo’s independence for a limited period, pending the implementation of the Ahtisaari Plan.This model, opines Feith, made the ICO to be “a lean and unbureaucratic organization with a timebound mandate and a commitment to local ownership, transparency and respect” although he admits that the organisation ‘narrowly’ failed in securing agreement on setting up an association of Serb municipalities in accordance with Kosovo law (as foreseen in the CSP). “Additional effort and a greater willingness to use our remaining authority might have settled this issue long ago,” Feith writes.
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