Bundestag deputy after Escobar's comments: The Council of Europe decides on its own membership criteria

2024-03-15 22:53:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Bundestag deputy after Escobar's comments: The Council of Europe decides on

Bundestag deputy, Knut Abraham, said on Friday that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will decide independently on the criteria for Kosovo's membership in this mechanism.

He made these comments after the statement of the American envoy Gabriel Escobar who, in an interview for Radio Free Europe, said that after the fulfillment of the request from Kosovo for the implementation of a decision of the Constitutional Court for the properties of the medieval Monastery of Deçan, there are also two other conditions for Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe.

Mr. Escobar said that the implementation was a difficult decision, but it had to be done and "it will have an effect. Now, there are two other conditions that the Council of Europe had mentioned and that some European countries are looking for. One has to do with some action on the expropriations that are taking place in the north. And the other is the Association (of municipalities with a Serbian majority)".

But the German MP, Knut Abrahams wrote on platform X that "we appreciate Escobar's concerns, but we can assure him that the Parliamentary Assembly will independently decide on the criteria for Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe and will evaluate their fulfillment. The US would not meet these criteria because of the death penalty," he wrote. The Government of Kosovo decided to implement the decision by which the medieval monastery is recognized with the right to property in over 24 hectares of land, as it is directly related to Kosovo's request to join the Council of Europe.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the decision of the Constitutional Court as "strange" and "unfair", but emphasized that "there is no doubt that Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe would be not only a historic victory but also a giant step for our Republic towards recognition of the European five that enables membership in NATO and the EU for independent Kosovo"./ Voa