President awards Order of Honour to head of EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has awarded Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia Kestutis Jankauskas with the Order of Honour.

Jankauskas, a Lithuanian diplomat who has been head of the mission since 2014, has ended his mandate in Georgia this year.

President Margvelashvili hosted him at his presidential palace in Avlabari and thanked him for his work.

The President awarded him for his efforts to contribute to ensuring peace and security in Georgia.

Margvelashvili said that with Jankauskas as its head, EUMM has been very effective in Georgia.

Conducting patrolling. Photo: EUMM Georgia / Facebook

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.

The EUMM Georgia mission is headquartered in Tbilisi and has three field offices in Gori, in Mtskheta and in Zugdidi. During the past several years it was led by Jankauskas and had 200 EU monitors working for the mission.