Italian Ambassador to Pristina and EU envoy for northern Kosovo, Michael Giffoni, has reiterated that the strategy the interim Kosovo government and the International Civilian Office (ICO) have drafted for the northern part of the province is not a document of Brussels and that, therefore, it cannot have the support of the European Union, the papers in Pristina reported on Wednesday.

However, in practice, we are ready to cooperate in respect of the possible elements of the document that have to do with EU's joint approach towards northern Kosovo, Giffoni said at a debate that was staged in Pristina on Tuesday, and explained that EU's intensified presence in northern Kosovo is in the interest of not only the strategy, but also of the Union itself and its policy.

Addressing the participants of the debate on the implementation of the strategy for northern Kosovo, which was organized by the Foreign Policy Club, the representatives of the civic society in Kosovo qualified the drafting of the strategy for northern Kosovo as "positive," but expressed doubts about its realization in practice.

The International Civilian Representative Pieter Feith assessed on the occasion that the legal opinion the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will present on the legality of Kosovo's proclamation of independence will change things for the better, including the issue of the strategy.

We are waiting for the ICJ to define its position on Kosovo, as this will be the stance the international community will put forward in respect of Kosovo, and we truly hope that it will clarify the situation, Feith said.

The Court will not present a position that will fully back Pristina, but we do not expect that it will completely back the position of Belgrade either, Feith added, evaluating that once the decision has been reached, Serbia will be more cooperative.