Raseta: Before the vote on May 16th, Kosovo must fulfill promises made in Brussels

Dragoslav Raseta from the organization New Third Way assessed for Kosovo Online that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) members who supported the recommendation for Kosovo's admission into the organization yesterday indicated that it concerns human rights protection, and it is up to individual states to recognize Kosovo's independence or not.

"The argumentation of the 29 members who voted against was not good enough. We saw that there was consistent argumentation from the side that voted for recommending Kosovo's admission to the Council of Europe. They stated that this is about protecting human rights, that it is the prerogative of individual states whether they will recognize Kosovo or not. Thus, we had members from countries that formally do not recognize Kosovo voting for its admission to the Council of Europe. From that perspective, there was a certain separation. In terms of what recognizing a state means, and what it means to enable all citizens living in Kosovo - Albanians, Serbs, Roma, and other ethnic minorities - to protect their human rights by Kosovo joining the Council of Europe," emphasized Raseta.

He added that the Ohrid Agreement and the normalization process have been repeatedly called upon.

"Kosovo is considerably conditioned that this is an important step, but that before May 16th and the vote in the Committee of Ministers, much more will need to be done, namely, some concessions made and the commitments promised in Brussels in 2013 fulfilled," said our interlocutor.

Asked about the maneuvering space Serbia has to reverse the situation, Raseta emphasizes that it depends on what is meant by reversing the situation.

"I think that Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe is currently inevitable and I believe that is the expected outcome. On the other hand, Serbia has been left enough maneuvering space through some collaborators in the EU and the Council of Europe to exert pressure. Membership in the CoE represents a significant victory for Kosovo's current government. Thus, there is more room for the Quint countries to press Kosovo that it is finally time to fulfill, if not completely, then to start fulfilling the commitments from Brussels and Ohrid, and I think that will be key," Raseta conveyed.

As he emphasized, the statements of Serbian representatives in the Council of Europe were more focused on protecting the rights of Serbs in Kosovo, rather than on arguing to prevent Kosovo itself from becoming a member of the Council of Europe.

"Our main argument was that Kosovo has not fulfilled what it needs to in order to enter the Council of Europe, rather than saying that we opposed Kosovo's membership itself. Perhaps closer cooperation with France and agreements on purchasing significant fighters for Serbia and a major contract worth more than three billion dollars could influence France to advocate more for Serbian interests on May 16th," Raseta highlighted.

As he notes, he was not so much surprised by the attitudes of Greek representatives as by those of the Spanish, who were mostly against Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe.

"It surprised me more that the majority, or all Spanish representatives voted against, I expected it to be somewhat divided. But the composition of Pedro Sanchez's new government is more left-leaning, so it was expected that they would more firmly oppose Kosovo's membership. On the other hand, I expected Greek representatives to vote according to their own judgment and be divided, as there has obviously been a common stance advocating that human rights and the protection of human rights, which include ethnic rights, namely the protection of the rights of Serbs in Kosovo, are primarily the most important here. Thus, they have left themselves enough room to continue defending their national position of not recognizing Kosovo as an independent state, but on the other hand, to vote for giving a recommendation on Kosovo's accession to the Council of Europe," concluded Raseta.