Andrea Lorenzo Capussela recently spoke to PI about his recent book State-building in Kosovo: Democracy, Corruption and the EU in the Balkans.

Capussela, a former economic director at the International Civilian Office, a viceroy which oversaw Kosovo’s “supervised independence,” said that the EU’s international rule of law mission, EULEX, should be sent home “immediately.”

“They have damaged Kosovo throughout these past six or seven years,” Capussela told PI editor Valerie Hopkins.  “The mission is now damaging both Kosovo and indirectly the interests of the European Union, so it should be withdrawn.”

Capussela also raised human rights concerns about the planned special court for Kosovo set up in the wake of the 2011 Dick Marty report, and explained why he regularly and vociferously criticizes decisions of Kosovo’s Constitutional Court.

“If it is true as I believe it is that that Constitutional Court is not a judicial organ, it is a political organ, in fact a political instrument being used by the political elite in order to do things that they cannot do or are not willing to do on their own…I think it is necessary to expose it as a political instrument and necessary to show the public this type of court should not be taken seriously.”