MADRID, March 31 (Reuters) - Spain will not send personnel to the planned European Union police mission in Kosovo until legal questions over the transfer of powers from the existing U.N. operation are settled, the foreign ministry said on Monday. Spain, which faces domestic challenges from Basque and other separatists, is one of nine EU states that have not recognised Kosovo's Feb. 17 unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia. Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told a weekend EU meeting in Slovenia that Madrid would not deploy a small contingent of 15-20 personnel to the 2,000-plus EU mission until there had been a formal transfer of powers from the United Nations, a ministry spokesman said. EU diplomats doubt that member states making up the bulk of the force will follow the Spanish example and expect the operation -- which has a mostly advisory function but includes some anti-riot units -- to start by mid-June as planned. However the decision underlines concerns that several EU states have voiced in private about the status of a mission on a territory recognised bilaterally by dozens of capitals but which has not won any seal of approval from the United Nations. Russia, armed with a Security Council veto, backs Serbia's contention that the secession was illegal and is resisting a clean transfer of power from the U.N. mission to the EU as expected, EU diplomats say. Most EU states are prepared to deploy their police personnel on the basis of an invitation from the Kosovo government, but that would be awkward for Spain and potentially for other countries that have not recognised Kosovo. Madrid says the agreed EU text setting out the conditions for the mission states that there should be a direct transfer from UNMIK to EU. EU diplomats say they expect the two missions to exist in parallel for some time, although some hope it may be possible to find a pragmatic way of handing over responsibility once Moscow no longer chairs the Security Council. (Reporting by Jason Webb in Madrid and Mark John in Brussels, editing by Paul Taylor)
Members of the 'Serb public league' display a poster of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and wave flags during a protest meeting against Kosovo's declaration of independence, and the signature for referendum ...
