Kosovo left out of CoE Committee of Ministers

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe meets in Luxembourg on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Prior to the launch of the first meeting of the Committee of Ministers, without involvement in the issue of Kosovo's membership, Deputy acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Kreshnik Ahmeti said that “Kosovo does not figure as part of the agenda”.

In a Facebook response, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmeti said that Kosovo has been wrongly deployed to “unofficial requests” for membership.

“Although all standards have been met and each criterion has been met, the membership of the Republic of Kosovo is not included in the Council of Europe ministerial agenda, which is held today and tomorrow in Luxembourg”, Ahmeti said.

He said the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which last year gave the green light to Kosovo's application for membership, is the last mechanism to address whether the criteria have been met. The ministers' community has never acted contrary to the opinions of the Parliamentary Assembly, and the current delay in addressing its opinion on Kosovo is unreasonable. It is precisely the Parliamentary Assembly that sets the membership criteria, as shown by the cases of the membership of Monaco and Armenia. Nowhere are informal criteria presented, which are falsely asking Kosovo”, the deputy foreign affairs minister said.

According to Ahmeti, this treatment by the KiE Committee of Ministers “is a disturbing signal to the” region, especially in the new context following the meetings of Serbia's political and religious leaders with President Putin.

In April 2024, Kosovo rapporteur in KiE Dora Bakoyannis presented her report to the Parliamentary Assembly, stressing that Kosovo has fulfilled all membership criteria. This report was approved with over 80% of the votes in favour.