EU Envoy Comments on South Ossetia

European Union?s special representative to the South Caucasus countries Heikki Talvitie said at a news briefing in Tbilisi on October 27 that the EU is ready to provide expertise to the Georgian authorities in defining breakaway South Ossetia?s status.

He also reiterated the EU?s support to Georgia?s territorial integrity, adding that the EU supports only a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

?At this stage it is of vital importance to maintain a ceasefire,? Heikki Talvitie said, adding that the quadripartite Joint Control Commission, involving the Georgian, South Ossetian, Russia and North Ossetian sides, is ?the only valuable? mechanism for this purpose.

The EU envoy visited the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on October 27 and held talks with the Special Affairs Minister of the unrecognized republic Boris Chochiev.

Heikki Talvitie also said that the upcoming top-level talks between the Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoev, which is scheduled for the first week of November, are of huge importance.