Scrawl writes him a letter KiE, says government sends its Association draft at the end of May

Kosovo's “Government is preparing a draft Statut for the Association of Serb Majorities”, writes Kosovo Foreign Affairs Minister Donika Gervalla in a letter he has sent Wednesday to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe President Theodoros Rousopoulos.

In a letter published by Gerald Knaus from the European Initiative for Stability, Gervala vows that the draft inspirational status of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation “will be handed over to the Constitutional Court for Review by the end of May 2024”.

Geralla mentions in the letter the pledge of President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Chief Parliamentary Glauk Konjufca, whom they gave in March, that they will commit to establishing association after the country's membership in the Council of Europe.

“Since April 17th 2024, the Government of Kosovo has taken concrete and tangible steps regarding the full implementation of the Basic Agreement (27 February 2023) and its Implementation Annex (18 March 2023, including the Association of Serb-run municipalities, Article 7 concerning Article 10 of the Constitutional Agreement, as one of the post-member commitments. In line with Article 7's spirit regarding Article 10 of the Constitutional Agreement, we have already started consultations with representatives of the Serb community to take into account the needs of co-operation and association based on municipal services”, Gervalla writes on paper.

“In this direction, the Government of Kosovo is preparing a draft Statut for the Association of Serb Majority Communities (in the context of prior obligations at nine 7 and 10), inspired by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which will be handed over to the Constitutional Court for Review by the end of May 2024”, writes the Kosovo top diplomats.

Gervala writes that after these concrete and tangible <x0) steps, they expect the Committee of Ministers to invite Kosovo to become the 47th member of the Council of Europe.

Taking into account these concrete and tangible steps taken by Kosovo, we expect the Committee of Ministers to have additional reasons to invite Kosovo to become the 47th member of the Council of Europe”, Gervala writes.

“We thank you for your co-operation as we expect to improve our co-operation through full membership in the Council of Europe”, said at the end of the letter.

Kosovo has recently contacted Albania to seek help today and tomorrow the Committee of Ministers finally approves Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe.

Although he said he does not send the draft association to the Constitutional Court, thus rejecting the condition he said the European chiefs for Kosovo's membership to the Council of Europe this month, Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said he still hopes the Committee of Ministers will eventually decide to accept the country in the KiE.

On May 16th, 80% of MPs in the Parliamentary Assembly voted to further advance Kosovo on the road to membership in the Council of Europe. Kurti was immediately warned that “now comes hard work”, but said “make steps that endanger Kosovo, sovereignty, territorial integrity, constitutionality and its legality”.

Kosovo took its first important step towards membership in the Council of Europe on 27 March. Despite the vote against Serbia and two other countries, the KiE Committee for Policy and Democracy approved the Kosovo rapporteur's report, Dora Bakojannis, who recommends that the country has met the conditions for fully membership in the Council of Europe. But the last word belongs to the Committee of Ministers.