These are the procedures for Kosovo’s membership in the European Council

Gëzim Shala from the Kosovo Institute of Justice, says for KosovaPress that Kosovo meets all the technical criteria for membership in the Council of Europe.

Giving details on the procedures for membership in the Council of Europe, Shala says that Kosovo’s application will be reviewed by the Committee of Ministers within the Council of Europe and in case of acceptance will send an invitation to Kosovo and the latter will ratify it as international agreement with two thirds of the votes in the Assembly.

“This request of Kosovo will be considered by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which consists of 45 member states, as Russia is no longer a member state. This committee is composed of the foreign ministers of the member states or their delegates and they will review the application and decide whether to send Kosovo an invitation for membership or not. The committee of ministers is not legally required to have any form of cooperation in the EC Parliamentary Assembly, but in practice in some cases it happens that there is some kind of consultation between the committee of ministers and the assembly for a given country at Two-thirds votes are required of the members of this committee, it falls to us to have the support of at least 30 states represented in the committee of ministers. In this case, if the “green light” is given, it approves the request of Kosovo and sends to Kosovo the invitation for application, there are defined the conditions of membership, financial aspects and all other issues. “Kosovo is reviewing this invitation of the committee of ministers and according to the Constitution, Article 18 requires the Assembly to ratify the membership agreement by two thirds and the concrete case would be considered a member state of the Council of Europe with full rights”, he said.

Shala says the review of Kosovo’s application is not expected to be delayed by the Council of Europe Committee.

“I do not really know how much we can talk about the dates, as it depends on the work dynamics of the committee of ministers and also depends on whether they decide to have a form of consultation with the Parliamentary Assembly or not. It is not known when they will address and whether this request will be addressed by the Committee of Ministers. But the procedural aspect, the aspect of the duration of the review of Kosovo’s application should not be problematic… I believe that Kosovo institutions have only lobbied so far in terms of the states that should support us and be ready to our application to succeed in the Committee of Ministers in the Council of Europe. However, until the last day, diplomatic lobbying must be done to achieve that at least 30 countries support us “, said Shala.

He emphasizes that Kosovo meets all the criteria to be in the Council of Europe, and is even more democratic than some member states.

“If we take into account the other countries that have been admitted to the Council of Europe, for example, Armenia and Serbia, which are clearly not more democratic countries than Kosovo, especially if we compare with Serbia, Kosovo is much more democratic and has a level higher rule of law than Serbia. But it must be borne in mind that the same have been accepted at other times and not at this time. In general, in relation to these countries, Kosovo stands much better and should be considered to meet the conditions for membership in the Council of Europe. “Despite the fact that decision-making in this case must be professional to determine whether Kosovo meets the criteria or not, but still decision-making is political,” he said.

Meanwhile, he declares for KosovaPress that in addition to strengthening Kosovo’s international subjectivity, through membership in the Council of Europe, the citizens of Kosovo also benefit.

“The biggest beneficiary will be the citizen of the Republic of Kosovo, as there will be an international address where he will have the right to complain about the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In this case, the exhaustion of all domestic remedies is required, so it is up to the case to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo and if the party is dissatisfied and considers that fundamental rights and freedoms have been violated, he will be right to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, as we know the Strasbourg Court “, he concludes.

Kosovo today officially submitted the application for membership in the Council of Europe, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Donika Gërvalla./KosovaPress/

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