Is the Association the key to membership in the KiE?

After receiving green light at the KiE Parliamentary Assembly on 16 April, the final decision on Kosovo is expected to bring the Committee of Ministers of the organisation on 16 May.

Until then, Kosovo must continue to convince at least two-thirds of its 46 members why it should be among them.

And positive steps in this direction seem to be exactly what lead to the formation of the Serb majority municipalities.

France's president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Tuesday that “in the context of Kosovo's road to membership in the Council of Europe, France places importance on Kosovo's rapid and irreversible progress towards forming association”.

Germany's ambassador to Kosovo, Jorn Rohde, also said that Kosovo should take tangible steps, meaning “the delivery of a draft Association status to the Constitutional Court for Review”, in order to persuade sceptical governments to vote in its favour for membership in the Council of Europe.

The establishment of Association has been a constant requirement of other QUINT group countries, which, apart from France and Germany, include the US, the United Kingdom and Italy.

Free Europe Radio asked the Government of Kosovo if it plans to send the draft state to Constitution before May 16th, but, until the publication of this article, no response was received.

On April 17th, Kosovo Deputy Foreign Minister Kreshnik Ahmeti said that the establishment of association is not a prerequisite for Kosovo's admission into the KiE, but added that it is part of the pledges list under the Kosovo Report report to the Council of Europe, Dora Bakoyanis, which Kosovo has undertaken to implement after membership in the KiE.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said in an interview for Voice of America on April 23rd that sending the draft association status to the Constitutional Court is the task of the Government of Kosovo.

While connoisseurs of political and diplomatic issues in Kosovo agree that the country must take “positive steps” not to jeopardise membership in the Council of Europe.

Belgzim Kamberi, from the Institute for Social Policy “Musine Cocolari” in Pristina, says the request or suggestion of Western partners is clear: The Kosovo government must decree the draft status draft for association and submit it to the Constitutional Court for Review.

If sent [to the Constitutional Court], then, actually, the process of establishing association is unblocked... So far, this process has been blocked by the prospect of political decision making”, Kamberi says.

According to him, the practice thus far has shown that foreign ministers in the Council of Europe, generally, support the decisions of the Parliamentary Assembly.

But in Kosovo's case, he says, taking into account expectations that some countries have regarding the establishment of association, the 16 May vote may not be at all on the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers' agenda.

The “lest they appear to vote against the Parliamentary Assembly decision, is at risk of not entering the agenda at all, as a form of non-direct rejection”, Kamberi says.

Valon Murtezaj, Diplomacy professor at University I ESEG in Paris, says that any steps the Government of Kosovo can take in terms of the establishment of Association should co-ordinate it with the demands of key partners, from whom it expects support for membership in the Council of Europe.

If these are expectations from those who will vote, the government knows best what expectations are then it should be decided on the balance between expectations and the likelihood of success in the vote”, Murtezaj says.

According to him, the next step Kosovo can take before the Council of Europe foreign ministers' meeting on May 16th is: sending clear guarantees to relevant countries that the rights of non-US communities will be implemented, as well as clear signals that the entire legal Corps that is related to human rights will advance.

The “would be painful for Kosovo to lose membership after all this successful journey so far”, Murtezaj says.

In an interview The REL, on April 18th, Gerald Knaus, from the European Initiative for Stability, said his advice for Kosovo would be “ta sent the draft state of the majority Serbian municipalities to the Constitutional Court” ahead of the vote in May.

Knaus' organisation recently published a document on Kosovo's road to the Council of Europe.

Kosovo applied to join this organisation nearly two years ago on 12 May, 2022.

On March 27th this year, the Council of Europe's Committee for Policy and Democracy approved the rapporteur's report for Kosovo, Bakoyanis, which said the country has met the conditions for becoming a full-fledged member of the organisation, while the association considered it an internal issue of Kosovo.

Then, on April 16th, the Baconyanis report also went to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, while the final decision will be made by the Committee of Ministers, exactly one month later.

Made up of 46 member states, 27 of them members of the European Union, the Council of Europe is the continent's main human rights organisation.

Serbia announced late that it has established a working group to undermine Kosovo's membership in this organisation. This, despite the agreement it has with Kosovo, not to oppose its membership in international organisations. /REL