EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia extended for two years

The European Council has extended the mandate of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia) for two years, until December 14, 2018.

The Council also allocated a budget of €18 million for the first year of EUMM Georgia’s renewed mandate.

EUMM Georgia is an unarmed civilian monitoring mission tasked with ensuring peace and stability for people who live on both sides of the Administrative Boundary Line in Georgia’s breakaway regions Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

Since its establishment in October 2008, the organisation has supported the stabilisation and normalisation of the situation at ground-level following the EU-mandated six-point agreement between Georgia and Russia after the August 2008 war.

Although the situation in the country is relatively stable, EUMM's contribution remains key,” said the European Council in a press release.

The EUMM has successfully launched a number of small confidence building projects under its new facility and will increase those. It has also seen an important positive development with the resumption of the incident prevention and response mechanism in Gali.”

The press releases said the EU "continues to fully support Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders”.

The EUMM Georgia mission is headquartered in Tbilisi and has three field offices in Gori, in Mtskheta and in Zugdidi. It is currently led by Kestutis Jankauskas and has 200 EU monitors working for the mission.