A new plan, presented by EU envoy for South Caucasus Peter Semneby, envisages EU’s increased role in Georgia’s conflict resolution process, including monitoring of Roki Tunnel in breakaway South Ossetia, the Brussels-based EUobserver.com reported on March 20 quoting unnamed diplomatic sources.
15-point plan, which was presented to EU diplomats last week, will be discussed on March 27 by EU ambassadors, according to this report.
For Abkhazia it proposes widening the official UN-led negotiating format for conflict resolution to include the EU as an observer or full participant and calls for new customs structures to legitimize trade on border between Russia and breakaway Abkhazia; sending of EU peacekeeping in case of consent by Moscow and Sokhumi is also envisaged and it also offers European Commission-funded cultural programs, including EU information center in Sokhumi, according to EUobserver.com.
For South Ossetia, the blueprint proposes extending the mandate of a nine man-strong EU border assistance mission already in Georgia to monitor Roki Tunnel, linking breakaway South Ossetia with Russia’s North Ossetian Republic; the plan also considers using satellites to take continuous streams of high-resolution pictures of traffic via Roki Tunnel, which Tbilisi claims to be a route for arms smuggling.
Proposals are in line of Tbilisi’s calls for EU’s increased role in the conflict resolution process.
But EUobserver.com said that diplomats from Germany, Italy and France as well as Russia’s new gas and oil pipeline partners Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria “are reluctant to risk annoying Russia” by this new proposals on EU’s increased role in Georgia’s conflicts.
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