EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) will be led by retired Lieutenant General of the Polish army, Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, starting from July 18.

Tyszkiewicz was commander of the Polish forces in Iraq in 2003 and served as Poland’s ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2005-2010.

"I am very pleased that Member States have decided on the basis of my proposal to appoint Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, from Poland, as Head of Mission for the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM),” Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, said in a statement on July 5. “I am sure he will lead this mission to greater achievements for enhancing security and stability in Georgia as well as in the whole region, while building confidence amongst the parties to the 2008 conflict for finding a peaceful and long-lasting solution. For that reason, Mr. Andrzej Tyszkiewicz will have my full support and that of the EU as a whole.” 

Tyszkiewicz has replaced German diplomat Hansjörg Haber, who led EUMM from the very establishment of the mission in October, 2008 to monitor ceasefire following the August, 2008 war.

Haber was appointed as head of the EU Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) this March. EUMM is one of EU’s eight civilian missions under the Common Security and Defence Policy, which is supervised by Haber in his capacity of head of CPCC.

EUMM’s mandate expires on September 14, which Tbilisi expects to be further extended.

“Although the mission is not able to fully implement its mandate – the mission is not yet able to implement its monitoring duties in the occupied territories – it is very important for us to have this mission,” Nino Kalandadze, the Georgian deputy foreign minister, said on July 5.

She also said that with OSCE and UN missions scrapped as a result of Russia’s veto following the August war, Tbilisi considered EUMM as “the only international security guarantee” on the ground.

“We are glad, that EU shares this opinion and has an approach to further extend the mission’s mandate,” Kalandadze said.