At today’s session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, there will be no discussion of Kosovo’s admission to that organization, even though the Government of Kosovo has undertaken activities to draft the statute of the Union of Serbian Municipalities (USO), which should be sent to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo by the end of May.
Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Donika Gervala announced this on Thursday and informed the Council of Europe that Kosovo is working on a draft statute to establish a “mechanism for self-governance, coordination and cooperation of municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo” that meets the needs of the citizens of the Serbian community but at the same time respects the Constitution of Kosovo.
Apparently, such steps by the Kosovo government come too late and Kosovo’s admission to the Council of Europe was postponed for a few weeks after Serbia led by President Aleksandar Vučić launched a series of diplomatic activities to prevent Kosovo’s admission to that organization.
Serbia, which does not recognize the independence of Kosovo and considers it to be its territory, undertook in the Brussels Agreement not to hinder Kosovo’s admission to international organizations, but Kosovo also accepted the obligation to form the Union of Serbian Municipalities, and it was precisely the failure to take concrete steps towards the establishment of the ZSO that slowed down Kosovo’s admission to the Council Europe.
The spokesperson of the European Union, Peter Stano, welcomed Kosovo’s willingness to finally engage in the drafting of the ZSO statute because, he said, since 2013, unfortunately, Kosovo has not taken any steps towards the establishment of the aforementioned community.
In 2013, Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement on the establishment of the ZSO, and in 2015 agreed on its principles. In the same year, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo determined that a large part of those principles contradicted the Kosovo Constitution.
At the end of last year, European and American diplomats submitted a draft of the ZSO statute to Kosovo and Serbia, and the establishment of that community is part of the agreement on the normalization of relations that the parties agreed on last year in Brussels and Ohrid.
Stano reminded that in December 2023, the European Council welcomed the readiness of Serbia and Kosovo to accept the draft statute presented to the parties by EU representatives, and added that the document was formally recognized by 27 member states of the European Union.
On April 16, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recommended the admission of Kosovo to the organization, which angered Belgrade, for which it was a “day of shame”, while Pristina called it a “great day” and a step closer to full membership.
After that, it was announced that the final decision is expected on May 17 and that Kosovo should secure the votes of two-thirds of the 46 members in order to be admitted to the Political Committee of the Council of Europe.
But even though it enjoys great support in the Council of Europe, today Kosovo is stopped “one step” from membership in that organization dedicated to human rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the development of democracy, Fena writes.
