Pantic Pilja: Emergency meeting at the Council of Europe on March 27th, voting on the Bakoyannis report

The head of the permanent delegation of the Serbian Parliament to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Biljana Pantic Pilja, confirmed to Kosovo Online that an emergency meeting of the Political Committee of the Council of Europe was scheduled for March 27th, which included voting on the opinion of rapporteur for the accession of Kosovo to the Council of Europe, Dora Bakoyannis.

"Today, literally an hour and a half or two ago, we received an urgent notice of the meeting being scheduled. Mrs. Bakoyannis stated at the last regular meeting that if there were any developments, she would inform the secretariat to schedule a new meeting," Pantic Pilja said.

She recalled that there had been three requests from Bakoyannis regarding Kosovo's entry into the Council of Europe, and it had been announced yesterday that Kosovo would fulfill one of them - concerning the return of land to the Decani Monastery.

"And probably, I am now prejudging, assuming, that she wants to inform the Committee that there is progress in their behavior and that one of the conditions is fulfilled. Whether she will now go back on her word and whether the Committee members will say that this is enough and that other conditions do not need to be fulfilled, I do not want to prejudge, but this emergency scheduling of the meeting, even though we have a session in Strasbourg on April 15th, where they could have informed us about this, frankly, does not inspire confidence in me," Pantic Pilja emphasizes.

According to her, the meeting will vote on Dora Bakoyannis's opinion, and what she says is important, but she adds that voting is also on the agenda.

"So, to me, this can already signal that she wants to convey something. And as it was so urgently convened, because Kurti said that yesterday, immediately today a meeting is scheduled... You know, logistically, it's very difficult to implement all that so quickly: to have an available room in Paris, to schedule an emergency meeting for March 27th, rushing before Easter, you know that they have holidays, that Maundy Thursday is on March 28th. Somehow it can be seen that it was planned somewhere, that it's in a great hurry, and that logistically it's well-prepared. I really don't want to be pessimistic and I don't want to prejudge, I believe that Mrs. Bakoyannis has great political credibility, and she said that three conditions were needed," Pantic Pilja concludes.