Unarmed European Union ceasefire monitors will stay in Georgia until at least September 2010 in a bid to keep the peace between the country, its breakaway regions and Russia, EU foreign ministers agreed Monday, according to dpa. And they could be joined by observers from non-EU states such as the United States and Turkey, ministers said as they held a first debate on extending the mission to take in third countries. The 27-member bloc "has decided to extend the mandate of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) for another 12 months until September 14, 2010," read a joint statement approved at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. The mission was deployed in October 2008 in a bid to protect the EU-brokered ceasefire between Georgia, the separatist Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Russia, after their August 2008 war. Foreign ministers showed "high appreciation for the importance the mission has had in contributing stability in a very difficult situation," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who chaired the meeting as the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, and who visited Georgia in mid-July. The EU mission is the only group left to monitor the ceasefire, after Russia vetoed the extension of separate operations by the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The EU "noted with deep regret and concern that agreement has not been reached on the future of the UN and OSCE monitoring missions in Georgia. This development further underscores the crucial role of EUMM Georgia," the statement said. The scrapping of the OSCE and UN missions has prompted some EU member states to say that other major regional players, such as the US and Turkey, should be invited into the mission to maintain their presence on the ground. Other EU member states warn that this would infuriate Russia, which has long fought against the extension of US authority in the region. The issue was not on the agenda on Monday, but ministers debated it anyway, agreeing to come back to it in the autumn, diplomats said. "After the summer, there are other issues, including the issue of third-country participation, that might be and will be on the table," Bildt acknowledged. While the EU has mandated its mission to operate throughout the war zone, Russia has refused to let observers into the separatist areas until the bloc also recognizes their independence. The EU has flatly refused to consider such a trade-off and insists that the two zones are part of Georgia. The statement pointed out that the EU's mission is mandated to cover the whole of Georgian territory, as defined by the EU and all other countries except Russia and Nicaragua, and called for "unhindered access of EUMM to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which has so far been denied."
