24 March General Affairs Council

FOREIGN ministers agreed to send an ‘advance mission' to Albania to deliver a first 2-million-ecu tranche of EU humanitarian aid and to pave the way for a bigger group of civil and military advisers to go to the country. Ministers said they would cooperate closely with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and if a military force was sent to protect the advisers, which is not yet clear, it would probably wear an OSCE hat.