Council of Europe: Kosovo’s last-minute bid to appease Germany falls flat in Belgrade, Pristina

Kosovo’s last-minute bid to placate Germany and get its application for membership of the Strasbourg-based human rights body the Council of Europe approved has been attacked by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic and criticised by Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani.

The country was set to face a vote of the Committee of Ministers on Friday (17 May) on whether to join the organisation, having previously passed two rounds of plenary voting. While hopes were high that it would proceed with little issue, Germany threw a spanner into the works by insisting that the controversial and EU-demanded Association of Serb Municipalities should be set up first.

In the hopes of satisfying German concerns, Kosovo wrote a letter to the CoE detailing its pledge to draw up a statute for the establishment of the association and send it to the Constitutional Court for review by the end of May.

Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla Schwartz said the draft would “integrate non-majority communities and implementation of Kosovo legislation in all municipalities”.

“The draft ensures not only the respect of Kosovo Constitution and laws, but also prevents impermissible interferences from outside in municipalities but also all over Kosovo,” she said.

However, this effort earned a swift rebuke from Vucic, who said Kosovo could not create such a statute without Serbia’s agreement.

“Who are you to submit this text? The Brussels agreement is quite clear, that it should be done with the agreement of Serbia, or if we agree, as we have agreed contextually, conceptually and in principle that it should be a text submitted by the EU,” Vucic told local media.

While the Association was agreed upon as part of the EU-backed dialogue, it was not implemented, as Kosovo’s Constitutional Court found several provisions contravened its laws. These violations included the fact that it does not include other minorities and that it could entail executive powers.

Since then, the initiative has not progressed as Prime Minister Albin Kurti, fearing a failure of a similar system in Bosnia and Herzegovina with Republika Srpska, has tussled with Belgrade and Brussels over how it should be formed and what powers it should have.

However, Serbia’s insistence that Kosovo must not join the CoE also directly contravenes all EU-mediated agreements that state it must not oppose Kosovo’s membership of international organisations.

But the draft letter has also caused a stir at home, as President Vjosa Osmani’s advisor, Bekim Kupina, said her office was not consulted before it was sent. He told Radio Free Europe that the president “does not support this letter.”

“President Osmani only supports positions and actions previously consulted, coordinated and agreed with the institution of the Presidency… This letter is not like that”, Kupina told the media.

It is not yet clear whether the vote will take place on Friday. Sources told Euractiv that unless it was sure the vote would pass with the required two-thirds majority, it would likely be postponed until either later this year or an extraordinary session in the coming months.

As for the stance of Germany to Pristina’s proposal, the Embassy in Pristina appears to remain unconvinced.

A spokesperson told BIRN on Thursday that the latest step is not enough as Kosovo “is expected to take tangible steps to establish the ASM” and “submitting the draft statute to the Constitutional Court before the Committee’s meeting, would have been such a step.”

“Kosovo now needs to do the heavy lifting. This has still not happened,” the embassy said.

However, the argument that Kosovo should establish the association, did not carry much weight in previous debates. It was argued that Kosovo should be admitted into the CoE as this would provide much better oversight, guidance, protection, and support for all minorities in the country.

Furthermore, critics of Germany’s stance have been clear that the association is a condition for the EU dialogue and has nothing to do with the CoE, which is a totally separate entity.

(Alice Taylor | Euractiv.com, edited by Sarantis Michalopoulous)

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