Speech by ICR Pieter Feith to the Assembly of Kosovo, click here.

Speech by President Ahtisaari to the Assembly of Kosovo, click here.

Speech by Ambassador Ischinger to the Assembly of Kosovo on 10 September 2012, here.

The International Steering Group, in its fourteenth meeting in Vienna on 24 January 2012, concluded [link to communiqué] that Kosovo now was in the final stages of implementing the Comprehensive Status Proposal, allowing for preparing for an organized end to supervised independence and the closure of the ICO by the end of 2012. The meeting endorsed a two-track strategy where the ICO would continue to work with the Government and institutions of Kosovo to complete outstanding CSP tasks. Secondly the ISG endorsed packages of amendments to the constitution and relevant primary legislation necessary for ending the ICO mandate and supervised independence. At its fifteenth meeting on 2 July 2012 the ISG concluded [link to communiqué] that the CSP was substantially implemented and authorized the final steps to end supervised independence and close the ICO. The ISG authorized the relevant Kosovo institutions to adopt the necessary constitutional and legislative amendments to provide for an end to supervised independence. The schedule for ending supervised independence was moved back to September 2012.

Following preparation and committee work the amendments to primary legislation were adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo on 5 September and the amendments to the Constitution on 7 September 2012. The amendments had the effect of including remaining elements of the Comprehensive Settlement Proposal in the Constitution, while removing references to the CSP. The approval of the amendments cleared the way for the ISG, in its sixteenth and final meeting on 10 September 2012, to unanimously declare the end of supervised independence of Kosovo and to end of the mandate of the ICR, with immediate effect.

The sixteenth ISG meeting was followed by a solemn session of the Assembly of Kosovo, with speeches by Pieter Feith [link], President Martti Ahtisaari [link], Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger [link], Ambassador Frank Wisner and Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger [link]. The operational units of the ICO ceased operations on 30 September 2012, with only a small liquidation team remaining to close the office and sell off the assets by the end of 2012.