[NYC-L] NYTimes.com Article: EU Eyes New Envoys for Mideast, Kosovo

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EU Eyes New Envoys for Mideast, Kosovo

June 17, 2003
By REUTERS 




 

Filed at 6:17 a.m. ET 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has offered the
United Nations two alternative candidates to head the U.N.
mission running Kosovo in anticipation of a possible U.S.
veto of its first choice, diplomats said on Tuesday. 

The 15-nation EU sent U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan the
names of Swedish U.N. ambassador Pierre Schori and Italian
roving ambassador Antonio Armellini as new supremos for the
breakaway Serbian province, to replace German diplomat
Michael Steiner, who is leaving later this year. 

Diplomats said the unusual step of offering a choice rather
than a single nominee was taken because the United States
had signaled objections to Schori because of his outspoken
criticism of the U.S.-led war on Iraq.Italy's coordinator
for the EU Stability Pact in the region, has most recently
been working in Iraq as Rome's link-man with the U.S.
occupation forces' civil administration in Baghdad. 

The EU has the right to nominate the Kosovo coordinator as
by far the biggest aid donor. Whoever succeeds Steiner, a
former diplomatic adviser to German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder, will have to preside over delicate talks on the
territory's final status, likely to be launched next year. 

The choice of Kosovo administrator may affect another key
EU appointment -- a Middle East peace envoy to succeed
Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain, who leaves at the end of
this month. 

EU diplomats said there were two candidates -- Steffen de
Mistura of Italy, a veteran U.N. official with both Balkans
and Middle East experience, and Dutch diplomat Marcel
Kurpershoek, a fluent Arabic-speaker and former head of his
foreign ministry's Middle East department. 

Given the EU practice of carving up prestigious jobs among
member states, Italy would be unlikely to get both
positions. 

So if U.S. pressure leads Annan to pick Armellini for
Kosovo, Kurperschoek, currently Dutch ambassador to
Pakistan, looks more likely to get the Middle East post,
diplomats said. 

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-eu-kosovo-mideast.html?ex=1056871908&ei=1&en=152c51df789411a0


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