The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights body, voted on Tuesday to recommend Kosovo’s membership despite fierce Serbian opposition, Balkan Insight reports, UNN writes.
Details
“The assembly, known as PACE, voted 131 to 29 in favor of Kosovo’s accession, with 11 abstentions, despite fierce Serbian opposition,” the newspaper notes.
Before the vote, the representative of the Kosovo Parliament, Enis Kervan, called on PACE members to vote for the report prepared by the representative of Greece, Dora Bakoyanis.
“Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe is a tangible step towards ensuring access to justice for all our citizens,” said Kervan, a member of the Kosovo parliament from the Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo.
The head of the Serbian delegation, Biljana Pantic Pila, strongly opposed the report, pointing out that the creation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities is still an unfulfilled obligation of Kosovo, the newspaper points out.
“If you allow the so-called Kosovo to join the Council of Europe without first creating a Community of Serb-majority municipalities, the Community of Serb-majority municipalities will never be created,” said Pila, a representative of Serbia’s ruling Progressives.
Council of Europe Rapporteur Dora Bakoyanis, whose country, Greece, is one of the five European Union members that do not recognize Kosovo as independent, has prepared a “statutory opinion” recommending Kosovo’s accession, arguing that it “would lead to the strengthening of human rights standards by ensuring access to the European Court of Human Rights for all those under Kosovo’s jurisdiction.
“By adopting the conclusion, PACE has actually sent a decision on joining the Committee of Ministers, the last obstacle,” the publication points out.
“Serbia, which does not recognize the independence of its former Albanian-populated province, has warned that it may withdraw from the Council of Europe if Kosovo becomes a member,” the newspaper points out.
Addendum
Kosovo applied for membership in May 2022 after Russia was expelled following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, increasing Pristina’s chances of obtaining the two-thirds majority needed for accession.
The Council of Europe consists of 46 member states, including all 27 EU members.