Finland will send dozens of experts to Kosovo to assist the European Union (EU) mission there, the Finnish broadcasting company YLE reported Monday.

About 40 Finns including police officers, border guards and judges have been recruited for the mission, and the number of Finns joining the operation is expected to reach between 60 and 70, YLE said.

The EU is to send a 1,900-strong mission to Kosovo made up of experts from all EU countries.

This is the largest civilian crisis management operation that the EU and Finland have participated in, according to YLE.

So far, Finland has 450 peacekeepers and dozens of civilian observers in Kosovo.

Kosovo's parliament on Sunday voted to adopt a declaration of the province's independence from Serbia, which has drawn mixed responses from countries all over the world.

Kosovo was a southern autonomous province within Serbia before the breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Albanian-dominated region was plunged into ethnic conflicts in the 1990s.

Kosovo had been under UN administration since mid-1999, after NATO air strikes drove Serbian forces out of the province.