Selakovic: Advocacy of Kosovo’s Admission to CoE Is Destabilizing the Region  

Nikola Selakovic (PrintScreen YouTube)

Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic said on March 1, that the advocacy of Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe (CoE) was threatening to destabilize political situation and security in the region.

“The advocacy of Kosovo’s membership in CoE along with a growing chorus of voices supporting Kosovo’s admission to NATO are not contributing to Europe’s stability, to the contrary, they are threatening to destabilize political situation and security in our region,” Selakovic said in a statement responding to MEP Viola von Cramon-Taubadel’s backing to the initiative encouraging Kosovo to apply for membership in CoE.  

Selakovic said that Viola von Cramon-Taubadel had decided to exploit the developments in Ukraine and European countries’ fear of wide-scale destabilization to radicalize her lobbying activities aimed at “ensuring membership in international organizations of the self-proclaimed Kosovo.” Von Cramon has written on her Twitter account that she has been supporting Kosovo’s membership in CoE “for a long time now,” and has therefore backed the European Stability Initiative (ESI) proposal to the Kosovo government to apply for membership in CoE.

Selakovic said in the statement that “Pristina, through UNMIK and in accordance with international law and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, has efficient canals for communication with international organizations,” stressing that “any attempt to earn Kosovo membership in any multilateral forum by a majority vote, would not contribute to stabilization of the Western Balkans, but would rather produce opposite effects.”

In its proposal titled “How Kosovo can become 47th member of the Council of Europe,” ESI said described Kosovo a European democracy where a number of free and fair elections had been held, with no political prisoners or charges of inhuman treatment, and where provisions on minority rights were in place.