Kosovo membership in KiE could last up to two years

Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Bjorn Berge highlighted today the Portuguese news agency “Lusa” that after Monday's decision “should have an opinion of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe”, in a process that “can get up to two years”.

Asked about the Council of Europe's will to add a new member, Berge stressed that the organisation is the principled “, open to all European countries”.

We certainly lack two countries today, Russia and Belarus, which, for reasons known, are not members”, he added.

It is now up to the Parliamentary Assembly to issue its opinion on an indefinite date, with the next meeting of the Assembly Bureau scheduled for Friday, it reported. AFP on Monday, citing Council of Europe sources.

Meanwhile, Gilberto Jeronimo, Portugal's ambassador to the permanent mission at the Council of Europe, considers that the development of this process is natural, although he acknowledges he would like Kosovo's “entry to be an element of greater unity”, in the face of Serbia's challenge to the process, broadcasts Klaankosova.tv.

“We are sure that, in the future, in the medium-term and long term, of course it will be this way”, he said, the Portuguese medium “notianuto” reported.

Jeronimo, who was speaking in Strasbourg in front of Portuguese journalists, recalled that Portugal is a state that recognises Kosovo protecting membership in an organisation “intended to unite all European-owned countries”.

Among the reasons for Portuguese support, Gilberto Jeronimo stressed that if the membership process is successful, the possibility of even Kosovo citizens taking advantage of those guarantees that the Council of Europe itself can provide will be access to the European Court of Human Rights” respectively.

Portuguese diplomat also stressed, as another reason, that Kosovo “is part of a very small list of countries that are not part” of the Council of Europe, recalling Russia's expulsion due to Ukraine's invasion and Belarus due to the failure to prevent its death penalty.

Kosovo had submitted its candidacy in May 2022, shortly after Russia's expulsion following the invasion of Ukraine.

Leaving Moscow, Belgrade's historic ally, should make it easier for Pristina to win two-thirds of the majority.