INTERPOL membership efforts continue

Authorities in Pristina believe Kosovo will become a member of international police organisation this year. NTERPOL. Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Izmi Zeka told Radio Free Europe that Kosovo institutions are working and making all efforts for the country's membership in INTERPOL.

The “has become a sufficient lobby. We strongly believe Kosovo institutions will be key to Europe's most important security institution in INTERPOL. It means that we don't have the dilemma that this issue is closing”, Zeka said.

We have had good opportunities last year, but seeing that a number of states have moved in attitudes, so we have postponed it for a year and so, we believe that the INTERPOL case will be closed”, Zeka said.

Meanwhile, Kosovo Foreign Ministry officials have announced that the Interpol Executive Council in Lyon France has already put Kosovo on the agenda to join this organisation this year.

Deputy Prime Minister Zeka said that after applying to be part of the agenda, other procedures are simple and technical. However, he added, until the day Kosovo is expected to be voted for membership, various institutions and mechanisms along with the Allies will lobby for Kosovo to have enough votes for membership.

“We have talked with the main acts, and they are willing to support Kosovo. We are strongly close to international mechanisms, with the powers that are deployed from the US, France, Great Britain and other states that have influence, but we have not stopped lobouring”, Zeka said.

According to him, Serbia, which has been trying to stop Kosovo's integration into different international mechanisms and institutions, already does not have the impact it could have had, as many states are on Kosovo's side on the issue.

Even Parliamentary Commission for Internal Affairs in the Kosovo Assembly chairman Haxhi Shala believes Kosovo this year will become a member of the International Police or INTERPOL.

He told Radio Free Europe, that Kosovo institutions are working in that direction, but by the time it is voted for membership, it must be worked hard.

There's a team working. We also have a representative from our Parliamentary Commission for Internal Affairs on that team. To date, on the basis of the work being done for lobbiing in all the world institutions that are members of INTERPOL, I believe Kosovo by the end of the year will be joined in INTERPOL”, Shala stressed.

The General Assembly of Interpol will be held in November this year in the United Arab Emirates.

Kosovo had applied for membership in the international police mechanism last year, I NTERPOL. She had joined the organisation's Executive Committee agenda so that she could be voted in for her admission to the annual General Assembly of this organization, held on September 17, 2017, in Beijing. But, out of uncertainty that it would secure enough votes for accession, it had withdrawn the candidacy.

Meanwhile, Palestine and the Solomon Islands had been accepted.