By KUNA
Vienna : The “International Steering Group” (ISG) for Kosovo has been formed in Vienna, said an Austrian foreign ministry statement on Friday. EU special envoy Peter Feith said after the inaugural session in the foreign ministry that the members of the group were “friends of the independent state of Kosovo”. The members are Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, the US, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Britain. Feith said that he had been appointed ISG civilian representative. The goal was to implement the Ahtisaari plan, which was positive because it was aimed at developing a “stable, multi-ethical, democratic state” in Kosovo. If the plan went through, it would benefit stability in the region, and improve social and economic conditions for the populaton of Kosovo. Feith, of the Netherlands, said that there would be “no partition of Kosovo”. There could be “privileged relations” between Serb communities and Belgrade, but the authority of the government in Pristina had to be respected. Not allowed would be any form of violence, or setting up parallel structures in the North of Kosovo. Representatives of the international community must be able to move freely in all parts of Kosovo. At present the situation in North Kosovo, where there is a concentrated population of Serbs who are strictly against independence, was “difficult, and not as we would have wished”. But the ISG was in contact with the Serbs, and trying to assure them that the new organization was not a threat. The only member of the Kosovo Contact Group (Russia, US, Germany, France, Britain and Italy) not to belong to the ISG is Russia. The chances of it becoming a member soon were slim, Feith conceded. Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president and UN special envoy, proposed “surpervised independence” for Kosovo, along with protective mechanisms for the Serb population group and its cultural sites. The forming of the ISG was part of the Ahtisaari Plan. The US and most EU states including Austria have given approval to the secession of Kosovo from Serbia. But many other states, including Russia, China, India, a number of Latin American and a few European countries, are sceptical of the unilateral declaration of independence in Pristina, or reject it outright.