Kosovo one step closer to the Council of Europe, President Osmani reacts: We will continue working with allies until full membership

The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, has reacted after her country has successfully passed the first step for full membership in the Council of Europe.

Osmani, through a post on the X social network, states that after this positive step, Kosovo will continue to work with allies to ensure that all citizens have access to the instruments of the Council of Europe through full membership.

"We will continue to work with allies to ensure that all our citizens have fair access to the instruments of the Council of Europe through Kosovo's full membership," Osmani wrote.

We remind you that the Committee for Politics and Democracy of the Council of Europe has approved the report of the rapporteur for Kosovo, Dora Bakoyannis, where it is recommended that the country has fulfilled the conditions to become a full member of the Council of Europe.

The next step, according to this committee, will be on April 18, when this report will be voted on before the Parliamentary Assembly in its full composition.

Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Kreshnik Ahmeti, said that the opinion of rapporteur Bakoyannis recommends Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe "without any additional preconditions".

"None of the commitments that Kosovo must take on are required to be fulfilled before membership. Even in point 11 it is clearly stated that the pledge must be addressed after membership", he wrote on Facebook.

According to him, all the proposals to set new preconditions "were rejected by the majority of the Committee members, which shows that Kosovo should become a member in May of this year and the new preconditions would be unfair".

In Bakoyyanis' report, Deputy Minister Ahmeti said, the removal of the footnote that is placed before the name of Kosovo is also required, "a footnote that has been used since 2008 in every report and communication on and with Kosovo. Also, it is recommended that Kosovo be invited as a state, according to Article 4 of the Statute of the Council of Europe, and not as a country according to Article 5".

Meanwhile, the deputy of the Assembly of Kosovo from the ranks of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Besnik Tahiri, who was present at the meeting, said that the report was voted with 31 votes for, four against and one abstention. But, according to him, there were disagreements during the meeting.

"In the Committee, the deputies were divided. On the one hand, Serbia opposed and on the other hand there was almost a consensus in support of Kosovo's membership", he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

After this vote in Strasbourg, the matter will proceed to the Parliamentary Assembly on April 18 and if it receives approval in this institution as well, then the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe must give the final word on Kosovo's membership during a meeting that will be held in May .

Kosovo applied in May 2022 for membership in the Council of Europe. Its membership is opposed by Serbia.

The membership of Pristina has been updated in recent weeks, since, with the request of the Government of Kosovo to the Cadastral Agency for the transfer of 24 hectares of land in the name of the Monastery of Deçan, one of the main conditions for membership has been fulfilled.

In an interview given to Radio Free Europe on March 15, the US emissary for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, suggested that the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo and the issue of some expropriations in the Serb-majority north could be brought out. as additional conditions from several European states for Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe.