Pantic-Pilja: Putting Kosovo's request for admission to the Council of Europe on the agenda is a precedent and a shame

The head of the Serbian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Biljana Pantic-Pilja, assessed for Kosovo Online that putting Kosovo's request for admission to the Council of Europe on the agenda of the extraordinary session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe scheduled for Monday, April 24, was a precedent and a shame for the Council of Europe. According to her, no entity had ever become a member of the Council of Europe.

Pantic-Pilja says that it is an extraordinary session of the Committee of Ministers, which "is hastily scheduled for Monday, right when the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe begins, which has not been the practice until now".

"This is a precedent that the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly are sitting at the same time. This hastily scheduling the meeting clearly shows that they are in a hurry to "push through" the request of the Pristina authorities for the admission of the so-called Kosovo to the Council of Europe. It is incredible how much pressure the minister of Iceland tried to withstand, as the presiding country, and in the end, they could not resist such an aggressive campaign for the admission of the so-called Kosovo. I don't know if this is revenge on the Serbs for not going to the elections in the north of Kosovo on Sunday, but it is certainly a reward for their political child and Kurti, probably for the persecution, violence, and killing of the Serbs in Kosovo," the head of the Serbian delegation at PACE said.

She added that in this way one side of the dialogue was directly rewarded for not respecting the agreement.

"Instead of pressuring Kurti to form the CSM, which we have been waiting for for more than ten years, they are rewarding him. It is obvious that the goal is to expel the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, but that will not succeed, the Serbs will survive and continue to live and work despite the terror of Kurti." Pantic-Pilja pointed out.

She emphasized that there was a procedure for admitting new members to the Council of Europe, but she also expressed her fear as to whether it would be respected.

"Honestly, I am not sure that they will respect anything anymore, since they trampled on all the principles on which the Council of Europe rests. First of all, and we have been emphasizing this all the time since Pristina applied, no entity has ever become a member of the Council of Europe. Kosovo is not a state and cannot be a member of the Council of Europe. The procedures are clear, and a certain period is required, which implies the preparation of the reports of the competent Committees, however, the procedures and international law do not seem to apply when it comes to the so-called Kosovo," Pantic-Pilja said.

She assessed that "it is clear to everyone that there is no reciprocity and there is no respect for either the agreement or international law".

"This is pure hypocrisy and insolence and things should be called by their true name. We have been talking and asking for the CSM for ten years, the Serbs in Kosovo suffer the most terrible human rights violations, every day you hear that someone has been shot by the Kosovo Police or beaten. The Quint rewarded Kurti for that. These are reciprocity and double standards of the international community," Pantic-Pilja said.

The Serbian delegation, as it says, will continue to fight, stressing, as it has fought so far, that the entity cannot be a member of the Council of Europe, and that it is necessary to urgently form the CSM.

"We will see on Monday how it will all look. Certainly, if the request of the so-called Kosovo passes, it is only the beginning of a procedure that should continue, but I would not prejudge anything. I emphasize once again that everything about this request is a precedent and a shame for the Council of Europe," the head of the Serbian delegation at the PACE emphasized.

Referring to the local elections that will be held tomorrow in four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, Pantic-Pilja pointed out that "there is no democracy".

"And that is another shame of the international community. I would only like those great fighters for democracy and human rights to tell us where in the world voting is held in a police container and a police station. The Serbs will continue to fight with the support of a stronger state than ever and when they have Aleksandar Vucic as president, they know that they will not be unprotected and left behind, but that we will all fight together for survival," Pantic-Pilja concluded.