The Committee for Politics and Democracy of the Council of Europe adopted the report of the Council of Europe (CoE) rapporteur for Kosovo, Dora Bakojanis, which recommends the admission of Kosovo to membership without any preconditions.
President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani announced that the Committee for Politics and Democracy of the Council of Europe adopted the Bakoyanis report.
“Another positive step,” Osmani said on the X network.
She pointed out that after the committee approved the report today, Kosovo’s accession to the Council of Europe passes to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
“We will continue to work with allies to ensure that all our citizens get real access to SE instruments through full membership,” said Osmani.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of Kosovo, Kreshnik Ahmeti, announced that the report of rapporteur Bakojanis was adopted, recommending the admission of Kosovo to membership without any preconditions.
“None of the obligations that Kosovo needs to undertake must be fulfilled before membership. Even in Clause 11 it is clearly stated that the promise must be fulfilled after membership. “All proposals for setting new preconditions were rejected by the majority of committee members, which shows that Kosovo should become a member in May this year and that the new preconditions would be unfair,” wrote Ahmeti.
The President of Kosovo said earlier today that the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo is not a condition for membership, and that the report of rapporteur Bakojanis talks about the association as one of the obligations after membership.
The requirements for Kosovo’s admission to the Council of Europe were met by the Government of Kosovo on March 13 when it ordered the Kosovo Cadastral Agency to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo to return 24 hectares of land to the Orthodox monastery Visoki Dečani.
In May 2022, Kosovo submitted an official application for membership in the Council of Europe, while in April 2023 it passed the first stage of the procedure when the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to forward Kosovo’s membership request to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Admission to the membership of the Council of Europe requires a two-thirds majority of the 46 member states. With Russia withdrawing to avoid expulsion from the international organization after it militarily attacked Ukraine, Kosovo decided to apply for membership, AA writes.
