Serbia launches tough campaign against Kosovo's accession as NATO Parliament Assembly member

The hearing regarding this decision is set to be held in Sofia on Friday, the Klenkosova broadcast.tv.

” As an expert organisation that represents and promotes Euro-Atlantic integration and its values for two decades, including the membership of Western Balkan countries in NATO, the International Security Institute believes granting the status of an associate member of the Kosovo Assembly would be harmful as for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and especially for the stabilisation and Euro-Atlantic integration processes in the Western Balkans<1>, it is said in the announcement that Serb media have shared N1.

” in this regard emphasises the fact that four out of a total of 32 NATO members do not recognise Kosovo as a state, meaning that the Alliance has no consensus for Kosovo's international judicial status”.

” transferred to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, there is no such consensus either among its members who have the right to decide, NATO member parliament delegations” respectively.

The institute threatens that the nine current members of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly will undoubtedly come from internationally recognised and internationally recognised countries and that granting the same status to the Kosovo Parliament would be a dangerous “precedent and would undoubtedly threaten the integrity and role of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, including the risk of opening disputes within the organisations”.

Kosovo is still far from meeting all the basic criteria for potential NATO membership, which come out of Article 10 of the Treaty and “Open door policy” of NATO, is said to be adding that this “disqualifys Kosovo for associate membership in Parliament at the NATO Assembly”.

This institute claims that Kosovo does not meet any of those criteria, especially “functional democratic political system”, then “just treatment of minority population”, and especially “commitment to peaceful resolution of conflicts”.

”Democracy in Kosovo is not functional, its institutions are burdened with an extremely high level of corruption and other undemocratic practices, and the rights of minority communities, especially the Serb communities, are not protected, furthermore, they are exposed to various forms of violence and long-term severe pressure”, the report writes.

Even Kosovo according to this announcement makes “a very driving channel for cross-border organised crime, including drug smuggling chains, people smuggling and recruiting Islamic extremists”.

Kosovo's “Access to the status of a member associated with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly would hardly jeopardise the ongoing process of dialogue for normalising relations with Serbia, which is under EU mediation”, the institute says further.

However, this organisation welcomed the position of rapporteur Lord Lancaster that Brussels' dialogue is “kyc for stabilising post-conflict situations in the West” and called on the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to prevent the “risk that would bring the whole process from granting the status of an associate member to Kosovo”.

Such a decision would prejudge the outcome of the dialogue, in which all members of NATO and the EU have invested major efforts for years and hope it will ensure a lasting compromise and long-term peace and stability in the Western Balkans“, the statement said.

All of this, the International Security Institute, as a longtime lawyer for the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkans, calls on the NATO Parliamentary Assembly not to approve its Permanent Commission's recommendation to grant the status of an associate Kosovo Assembly MP at the upcoming session in Sofia”, the statement said.

It adds that such a decision would have very damaging consequences for the organisation itself and its mission, and much more for stabilisation processes in the Western Balkans after the conflict and its full involvement in Euro-Atlantic integration.

The statement has been signed by Belgrade International Security Institute Director Orhan Dragas and programme director Zoran Dragissic, who is also deputy and member of the Serbian Parliament's Permanent Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.