Kosovo’s request to become a special guest has been removed from the agenda of the Political Committee on Foreign Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, following a request from the representative of Spain.

Although three members of the Kosovo Assembly delegation were present at the meeting of the Political Committee held in Paris, the Council did not continue the discussion on Kosovo.

The Council of Europe, in a response to Prishtina Insight, sent the revised agenda, in which Kosovo’s request to be a special guest is not included. Kosovo’s request had been part of the initial agenda of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Democracy.

“At the opening of its meeting in Paris today, the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy decided to remove from its agenda point number 5: ‘Request for special guest status by the Assembly of Kosovo”, the Council wrote in its answer.

Ariana Shoshi Musliu, a member of the Kosovo Assembly delegation to the Council of Europe, told Prishtina Insight that who is the leader of the European People’s Party Group requested a vote at the beginning of the meeting to remove Kosovo’s request from the agenda.

Although Spain does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, it decided to allow citizens with Kosovo passports to visit the country in 2024.

Musliu-Shoshi expressed that this was an unexpected development that had not been anticipated either in political groups or as a possibility.

“This situation shows the need for mobilization as a state, in cooperation with our allies, to create a clear strategy that will ensure the realization of our priorities and agendas in the international arena,” Musliu-Shoshi wrote on Facebook.

In addition to Musliu-Shoshi, two other members, Besnik Tahiri and Enis Kervan, were also present in Paris.

A special guest has certain powers, but they are limited. According to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Bureau can grant the special guest status to national parliaments of non-member European countries that have applied for membership in the Council of Europe.

Any official request for special guest status, according to the Rules of Procedure, is addressed to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly by the President of the respective parliament. If the Bureau, after consulting with the Political Affairs and Democracy Committee, approves such a request, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly invites the relevant parliament to take up the status of special guest.

In February 2024, the Government decided to implement the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the properties of the Deçan Monastery – a condition for membership in this international mechanism.

After this decision, Kosovo received two green lights, but the third became a trap. It was the request for the establishment of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities that kept Kosovo off the agenda of the Committee of Ministers. 

Some member states requested the submission of the draft statute for the establishment of the Association as a step to gain the support of the majority of representatives from the member states of the Council of Europe.

The failure to send the draft statute for interpretation to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, regarding the draft statute for the establishment of the Association prepared by the European Union, was the reason that kept Kosovo off the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe meeting on May 17, 2024.

PM Albin Kurti has said that the Government does not accept the Association as a condition to become part of the Council of Europe. According to him, this request “is neither principled nor value-based.”

Kosovo has managed to secure enough votes from the delegates of the member states of the Council of Europe on April 16, 2024, in the Parliamentary Assembly. These delegates approved the report-opinion of the rapporteur for Kosovo, Dora Bakoyannis, in which it is recommended that Kosovo be invited to join the Council of Europe.

Out of 171 delegates who participated in the vote, 131 voted in favor, 29 against, and 11 abstained.

Kosovo applied for membership in the Council of Europe on 12 May 2022, with the submission of the application by Deputy PM Donika Gërvalla- Schwarz.