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In mid-May, the government of Kosovo submitted an official application for membership of the Council of Europe. Kosovo’s aspirations to become a member of the continent’s largest international human rights organization are not new, and Russia’s exclusion from membership following aggression against Ukraine has further motivated Pristina authorities to apply now. With the help of Russia, Serbia managed to block Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, such as UNESCO in 2015 and INTERPOL in 2018.
Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Donika Gërvalla, said that the decision regarding the application for membership in the Council of Europe was taken quickly and that she believed that the country would join this international organization.
“So far, we have not encountered any resistance that would suggest that the process could be compromised. Of course, we will respect all procedures, we will be honest, dedicated and serious throughout the process. And we hope that Kosovo will be among the countries that need a shorter deadline to join the Council of Europe,” Gërvalla said.
Kosovo’s application for membership in the Council of Europe will first be examined by the Committee of Ministers and, after assessing the situation in the country, the final word will be given by the Parliamentary Assembly, composed of national representatives of Member States. Two thirds of the Council of Europe member states must agree to Kosovo’s membership (31 out of 46). Currently, 36 Council of Europe member states recognize Kosovo as an independent state; Kosovo therefore meets this condition.
Milica Andric Rakić, director of New Social Initiative (NSI), believes that regarding the legislative framework, Kosovo will not encounter many obstacles. She claims that the legislative framework itself will not pose many problems because it was prepared in the first decade of the 2000s by experts and international missions.
However, Andrić Rakić warns that evaluating the implementation of this framework could prove more problematic.
“Kosovo may face certain demands, such as the need to implement the demarcation agreement with Montenegro or other agreements ratified by the Kosovo Assembly, including the Brussels Agreement. Hypothetically, there could be problems in respecting the right to language, since there are no higher education institutions in the Kosovo system that work in one of the official languages, such as Serbian” , explains Andrić Rakić.
She adds that numerous omissions and violations of the right to language by institutions, particularly judicial ones, would certainly be identified since the consequences on the legality of the trial are the most serious.
According to some lawyers, there could be problems with the civil status law, which currently does not provide for the possibility of same-sex unions. Amendments to this law were not accepted recently by the Kosovo Assembly and it is expected that the Council of Europe will request it, explains Andrić Rakić.
Pëllumb Collakusenior associate researcher at the Riinvest Institute for Development Research, says that Kosovo has been a member of two Council of Europe partial agreements since 2014, on the Council of Europe Development Bank and on the Commission of Venice.
Nevertheless, he adds that Kosovo could face specific challenges on the path to membership due to numerous technically complex admission procedures within the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the composition of the membership. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Çollaku mentioned that Kosovo has problems in an important area – a judicial system, which is loaded with cases in high courts, whose number of unresolved cases reached more than 220,000 at the end of 2021 .
“As the criteria are broad, they can vary and also include requirements such as the ability to exercise jurisdiction over its entire territory and the results of the EU-facilitated normalization dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. If this is the case, and knowing the current dialogue dynamics, membership status appears to be a long process if priority is not given to resolving these issues,” Çollaku said.
Can membership improve the fight against corruption?
The current Kosovo authorities believe that the most remarkable success of the government after a year of work is the fight against corruption and organized crime. Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in February, on the anniversary of the government’s action, that 12,000 people had been arrested, including 270 state officials.
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Additionally, in its 2021 Kosovo Human Rights Report, the U.S. State Department praised steps taken to identify, investigate, prosecute, and punish officials who committed human rights violations.
Pëllumb Collaku believes that corruption threatens the rule of law, democracy and human rights, negatively impacting competition and economic development and endangering the moral foundations of society.
He underlines that the Council of Europe’s approach in the fight against corruption has always been multidisciplinary and includes several elements: the establishment of European norms and standards, the monitoring of compliance with standards and the capacity building offered to the various countries and regions through technical cooperation programs.
“The Council of Europe has developed numerous multi-faceted legal instruments dealing with issues such as the criminalization of corruption in the public and private sectors, liability and compensation for damage caused by corruption, the conduct of officials public authorities and the financing of political parties. These instruments aim to improve the capacity of states to fight corruption at the national level as well as at the international level,” says Çollaku.
He adds that in the past PACE has published reports on Kosovo demanding improvements in matters of political interference in the work of the judiciary, the legislature, the media and other regulatory institutions, corruption, organized crime and integration of the Roma population.
“However, apart from these recommendations, there has been no support in the form of tools and instruments that Council of Europe member states benefit from. Such provisions would have been of immense importance for the Kosovo government in the fight against corruption,” says Çollaku.
The Council of Europe – guarantor of respect for human and minority rights?
Serbia called this attempt a violation of the 2020 Washington agreement, pending its formal implementation. President Vučić called the decision “a violation of all principles of international law and direct norms of certain agreements, from Resolution 1244 to the Washington Agreement.”
During the press conference with Vučić, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he wanted Serbia to continue its active involvement in the Council of Europe and that it was essential to develop relations that would enable the future for the entire region to become a member of the EU. Serbian leaders have no longer hinted that they would be ready to leave the Council of Europe.
Kosovo’s accession to the Council of Europe and the return of the Washington agreement
Asked whether the Serbian authorities should change their position on Kosovo’s accession to the Council of Europe and see it as an opportunity to guarantee the rights of the Serbian minority community, Andrić Rakić said she did not see Serbia sees significant value in Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe.
“I think the authorities in Belgrade will conclude that it is much more important to prove that Kosovo cannot solve the problem by bypassing Serbia and dialogue, rather than by possibly improving the rule of law situation in the country. Kosovo,” she said.
Andrić Rakić affirms that Kosovo’s accession could have positive effects on the quality of the work of institutions and the judicial system, emphasizing that the example of the case of Osman Kavala in Turkey shows that this is not the rule and that ‘Ultimately, it all comes down to political will.
“This is still the case with some verdicts of the Kosovo courts which are of great importance for the Serbian community, such as that concerning the property of the Visoki Dečani monastery. It is not difficult for me to imagine that such disputes will arise in the case of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, but not necessarily for everyone and a larger part of society could still see an improvement in the protection of human rights,” says Andrić Rakić.
As for the situation of Serbs in Kosovo, she explains that since the European Court of Human Rights only becomes competent after ratification of the Charter and admission to membership and cannot apply to court decisions rendered before accession, years will pass before the first The cases of the Kosovo Serbs are exhausted in the local courts and this body is made available to them.
Although some European Union member states have supported Kosovo’s application for membership in the Council of Europe, several have expressed clear reservations. One of them is France, and even the German representatives in the Council of Europe did not have a single position, although Chancellor Scholz gave his full support to the candidacy. However, it was not on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of May 20.
Even if Kosovo does not face major institutional obstacles to becoming a member in a relatively short time, it remains to be seen whether there will be the political will to do so. It will also be necessary to respect human and minority rights in Kosovo and pursue a coherent anti-corruption policy. In the absence of this political will, Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe risks not improving the reality of life for Kosovo’s citizens.
This article was published as part of the project “Civil society for good governance and the fight against corruption in South-Eastern Europe: Strengthening monitoring, advocacy and awareness-raising capacities (SELDI)” funded by the Union European.
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