On 20 July H.E. Sandro De Bernardin, the Director General for Political and Security Affairs of the Italian Ministry of Foreing Affairs paid a visit to the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia. He was welcomed by Ambassador Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, the Head of Mission and his deputy Gerard A. Fischer.
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After being updated on the general situaton in the area, the mandate, current activities and most recent challenges of EUMM, Mr De Bernardin was most interested in the confidence building pillar of the mandate. As it was pointed out; stability, especially along the Administrative Boundary Lines (ABL) is the basis of confidence among the conflict parties. Since its deployment after the August 2008 war the Mission has conducted around 29,000 patrols to monitor compliance with the cease-fire agreement and to ensure that there is no return to hostilities. The Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings, co-facilitated by EUMM and the hotline connecting all sides have proven extremely useful in bringing conflict parties together for dialogue and in defusing situations that could have escalated.
It was also underlined that EUMM has no executive mandate, therefore cannot directly address the demands of people on the ground. However, through its extensive presence on the ground in many cases it has been able to identify the needs of the local population. The information then was forwarded to authorities, NGOs, or other EU or international actors that could provide support in a material form.
After the briefing at the EUMM HQ in Tbilisi, Ambassador De Bernardin joined a patrol by Field Office Mtskheta to the ABL and had a meeting with members of the Italian contingent of the Mission.
