Apr 17, 2024. Posted by Periscope - Hellas
The
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has recommended that
Kosovo be invited to become a member of the Council of Europe – while deciding
to monitor its fulfilment of an extensive list of commitments and obligations
as from its accession.
Under the Council of Europe’s procedures, the Assembly must first give its opinion on any application for membership before a final decision is taken by the Committee of Ministers, the organisation’s executive body made up of Foreign Ministers.
In its
statutory Opinion, based on a report by Dora Bakoyannis (Greece, EPP/CD) and
passed by 131 votes in favour and 29 against with 11 abstentions, the Assembly
said membership would lead to “the strengthening of human rights standards by
ensuring access to the European Court of Human Rights for all those who are
under Kosovo’s jurisdiction”.
It would be
“the culmination of a dialogue which has developed over a span of two decades
but should in no way be seen as the end of a process. On the contrary,
membership should catalyze momentum for Kosovo to continue to make progress in
strengthening human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”
Membership
would also help Kosovo to “address outstanding challenges and matters of
concern,” the parliamentarians pointed out, including the gap between normative
standards and their effective implementation, the need to better protect the
rights of non-majority communities, and fostering a climate conducive to trust,
reconciliation and inclusion.
The
Assembly welcomed as “a major breakthrough” the implementation of the
Constitutional Court’s judgment in the case of the Visoki Dečani monastery,
which it said was “a tangible sign of the commitment of the government to act
in full accordance with the rule of law, irrespective of political
considerations.”
The
establishment of an Association of Serb majority municipalities would be “an
important step” to ensure the protection of the rights of Kosovo Serbs, it
added, and “should feature in the Committee of Ministers’ future consideration
of Kosovo’s application to accede to the Council of Europe, as a post-accession
commitment”.
Acknowledging
the “unprecedented circumstances” of the application, given that a number of
Council of Europe member states do not recognize Kosovo as a state, the
Assembly called for “diplomacy, dialogue and compromise.” It invited the
Committee of Ministers to ensure that Kosovo’s membership was “without
prejudice to individual member states’ positions as regards the statehood of
Kosovo.”