The independent commission appointed by the European Union to investigate the war between Georgia and Russia last summer has concluded that Tbilisi is responsible for causing the five-day conflict, SPIEGEL e-source Sept. 21 article reads.

The EU Expert Commission also holds Russia partly responsible stemming it on that Moscow escalated the conflict through its massive deployment of troops. The international commission will keep its findings under wraps until next week to first present the controversial results to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York. After that, the ambassadors of the 27 EU member states in Brussels and the Georgian and Russian governments will be simultaneously informed of the commission's findings.

It was expected that the commission’s investigation which cost EUR 1.6 million would be completed by July 31, 2009. However, the report was not presented to EU Council of Ministers yet as the investigation has been prolonged at the request of EU expert commission Heidi Tagliavini because of new findings in the case.