Official: Kosovo is not on board of Council of Europe Committee of Ministers meeting

While support declared by powerful states continues to be the focus of attention, it is clear that Kosovo's path towards membership in the Council of Europe will be longer and more complex than originally envisioned.

This makes clear the latest developments from the agenda of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers meeting on Friday.

Council of Europe Information Officer Estelle Steiner has confirmed to Telegrafi that Kosovo's application will not figure in the ongoing discussions of this committee.

Kosovo is now not on the agenda of meeting the Committee of Ministers”, Steiner has said.

According to the agenda, the foreign affairs ministers of 46 Council of Europe member states will hold their annual session on May 17th 2024, within the organisation's 75th anniversary.

The agenda will include the measures the Council of Europe is continuing to take in response to the Russian Federation's full aggression against Ukraine, implementation of the Raymond Declaration (advanced at the Summit of the U.S. and Governments in 2023) and the adoption of a Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy and the Law State.

According to the agenda, ministers will also review the organisation's work in areas such as human rights, including social rights and children's rights, democracy, rule of law, the fight against the death penalty, education and culture, the participation of civil society and youth, human rights in the digital era, migration and trafficking of human beings, protection of journalists, and measures to fight demination, anti-discrimation and inclusion, gender equality and the environment.

They will also discuss co-operation between the Council of Europe and the European Union.

At the end of the ministerial session, Liechtenstein will hand over Lithuania the presidency of the Committee of Ministers.

In this regard, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Monday that the process of normalising relations with Serbia should not be mixed with the Kosovo membership issue of the Council of Europe (KiE).

If mixed up, Kurti said, damage would also be caused by dialogue on normalising relations held in Brussels, as well as the Council of Europe as the “institution of preservation and promotion of democracy and human rights”.

According to a statement issued by his office, Kurt made these comments at a meeting with representatives of the QUINT countries: The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France.

The prime minister recalled that normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia takes place in Brussels and not in Strasbourg” and that “the process of membership in the Council of Europe is a matter of respect for human rights, democracy and rule of law -- values that the Republic of Kosovo embraces”, the statement on the media says.

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.