Prishtina, 6 May 2024
Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosova Albin Kurti, accompanied by First Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Kreshnik Ahmeti, met today with Ambassadors and diplomatic representatives of the QUINT states and the Head of the European Union Office in Kosova.
Current developments and the process of accession to the Council of Europe were discussed.
The Prime Minister emphasized that, up to now, three important levels of the Council of Europe (the Eminent Lawyers, Rapporteur Dora Bakoyannis, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) have confirmed that the Republic of Kosova fulfills the standards and criteria to be a full member of this organization. The conditions and preconditions for membership were put forth in the report of Rapporteur Dora Bakoyannis. The Republic of Kosova fulfills them, including here even the decision, awaited for years, on the Deçani Monastery. Furthermore, as a sign of readiness and a step forward, the three heads of state sent a letter of guarantee to the Rapporteur Dora Bakoyannis, addressing the post-accession matters identified by the Council of Europe.
The Prime Minister emphasized that Kosova is the most democratic country in the Western Balkans, with an advanced constitution that offers guaranteed and broad rights for non-majority communities and goes beyond international standards, as assessed by the Eminent Lawyers of the Council of Europe. With the letter of guarantee, Kosova has fulfilled all accession criteria, and therefore every further demand is out of line with the vote of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 16 April, with 82% support (131 to 29).
The Prime Minister recalled that the normalization of relations between Kosova and Serbia is held in Brussels, not in Strasbourg; that the process of accession to the Council of Europe is a matter of respect for human rights, democracy, and rule of law, values that the Republic of Kosova embraces. These two processes should not be mixed, as they do not help one another. In the event that they are mixed, this would do irreparable harm to the Brussels dialogue on the one hand, and to the Council of Europe as an institution for the safeguarding and promotion of democracy and human rights on the other.
The Prime Minister emphasized that Article 7 of the Basic Agreement cannot be extracted from the package consisting of the Brussels Agreement and the Ohër Annex and must not be placed in the center as a priority. He recalled that on 26 October, the offer to sign the Agreement as a package that would have opened the way for the full implementation of the Agreement, including Article 7 in connection to Article 10. In this regard, the Prime Minister re-emphasized that the document offered by Lajcak as a draft statute for implementation of Article 7 in connection with Article 10 was not accepted on 26 October of last year in Brussels.
The Prime Minister called on Kosova’s allies, the QUINT states, to support Kosova’s accession on 17 May, in line with the assessments of the Council of Europe’s own institutions, and on the basis of achievements on the merits, in the development of democracy, human rights, rule of law, and its alignment with Western values and positions. At a time when autocracies in Europe are on the rise and pose an increasing threat to democracy, security, and peace, Kosova’s democratic achievements should be celebrated by Western democracies.
Last modified: May 7, 2024