The Kosovo government is demanding from the international community to change the mandate of UNMIK, UN's mission in Kosovo.
SOURCE: B92, TANJUG FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017
Pristina wants UNMIM to be given the role of a political mission, "so that Kosovo can start negotiations to join the UN."
But the message from UNMIK has been that they will continue within their current mandate, "as the mission was reconfigured" after ethnic Albanians in Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008.
"Only the UN Security Council can make decisions about the mandate of UNMIK," mission head Zahir Tanin said following media reports about a request by the Kosovo Foreign Ministry to close the mission, Tanjug said.
The agency quoted Albanian language Pristina daily Kosova Sot that said Tanin made this statement "at Wednesday's closed-door meeting with the foreign affairs committee of the Kosovo assembly."
Pristina officials say that the mission's work is "not productive," and that "some UN Security Council members" are in favor of "cutting its budget and shutting it down."
After the Kosovo UDI, some of UNMIK's powers were taken over by EU's rule of law mission, EULEX. UNMIK's staff went down to 350 from 15,000, while its budged
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