(BRUSSELS) - The European Union approved Thursday a Swiss role in its police and justice mission in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February.

The decision was taken by EU interior ministers without debate.

Switzerland is to make a modest contribution -- a few dozen personnel -- to the mission, which will number around 1,900 police, legal and customs experts when it is fully operational, a Swiss official in Brussels said.

It joins Norway, Turkey and the United States among the non-EU members of the mission, dubbed EULEX and meant to help chaperone Kosovo to independence.

Only around 350 people are taking part in EULEX so far, with Serbia and Russia holding up its deployment across the ethnic Albanian majority region, including in its Serbian-dominated areas.

EU officials hope it will be fully operational in the European autumn.

The mission has also been troubled by differences within the European Union as not all the bloc's member nations have endorsed Kosovo's decision to break away.

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