Serbia is making an attempt to dam Kosovo’s membership within the Council of Europe (CoE), placing doubtful an EU-brokered deal amid heightened rigidity within the area.
Belgrade voted in opposition to Kosovo’s bid within the Council’s committee of ministers in Strasbourg on Monday ( 24 April).
Cyprus, Romania, and Spain, which do not recognise Kosovo, additionally voted no, as did Serbia-friendly Hungary.
But a two-thirds majority (33 out of 45) pushed the applying to the following step anyway — a majority vote by the Council’s parliamentary meeting, for which no date has but been set.
The Serbian no-vote seems to be like a direct violation of an EU-sponsored accord on normalising relations, sealed in marathon talks with EU overseas relations chief Josep Borrell in Ohrid, North Macedonia, final month, whose article 4 says: “Serbia is not going to object to Kosovo’s membership in any worldwide organisation”.
The Ohrid deal was agreed verbally however not signed.
The EU overseas service, on Tuesday, “took observe” of Serbia’s CoE choice, however dismissed the concept it put the broader deal in jeopardy.
“The settlement is alive as a result of it is being taken ahead,” Borrell’s spokesman mentioned.
Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić is to fulfill Kosovo prime minister Albin Kurti in Brussels subsequent week to iron out variations, the spokesman added.
The non-signature of the Ohrid deal was irrelevant as a result of Vučić had made a “high-level political dedication” to it, the EU spokesman added.
And additional progress towards EU accession, together with future EU funding, now depended on its implementation, he mentioned. “It’s a matter of credibility,” he mentioned.
But for his half, Vučić doubled down on the CoE marketing campaign.
In a press convention on Tuesday, he mentioned Serbia would evaluate its recognition of the territorial integrity of nations which abstained (resembling Ukraine) or voted in favour (Montenegro) of Kosovo’s membership.
“If somebody doesn’t respect our territorial integrity, why ought to we respect theirs?”, he mentioned.
Kosovo broke away from Serbian management in a bloody battle 25 years in the past and is now recognised by 101 international locations, however Serbia nonetheless sees it as one in all its provinces.
The CoE row comes after tense native elections inside Kosovo final weekend.
Kosovar Serbs boycotted the vote, leaving ethnic Albanians to win, amid road patrols by Nato troops in majority-Serb areas.
The EU “regretted” the boycott in an announcement, whereas Kurti blamed it on Serbian interference.
“The threatening marketing campaign orchestrated by Belgrade and executed by intimidation, stress and blackmail by felony teams … led to a low turnout,” he mentioned.
Vučić mentioned: “I’m afraid that it is a prelude to a a lot deeper disaster”.
He additionally mentioned he was “anticipating nothing” from his assembly with Kurti and Borrell in Brussels subsequent week.
The turbulence comes on prime of renewed calls by the Bosnian Serb chief, Milorad Dodik, to separate from Bosnia and create a higher Serbia.
“No one will forestall us [Serbs] from uniting as a result of it’s our proper and our historical past. The final century was the century of Serbian struggling, and this century is one in all Serbian unification,” Dodik mentioned at a WW2 memorial ceremony in Republika Srpska alongside Vučić on Monday.
“Serbs is not going to survive in these areas if Republika Srpska doesn’t turn into unbiased within the coming years,” he added.
Vučić didn’t remark on unification on the occasion.
The EU spokesman mentioned on Tuesday the conditions in Bosnia and Kosovo had been “not linked”.
This story was corrected on 27 April to say: “Cyprus, Romania, and Spain, which do not recognise Kosovo, additionally voted no, as did Serbia-friendly Hungary”. The unique textual content had mentioned Hungary did not recognise Kosovo both.
