Self-Proclaimed Kosovo to Apply for Council of Europe Membership Thursday, Serbian Leader Says

BELGRADE (Sputnik) - The self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo will on Thursday apply for membership in the Council of Europe, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Sputnik
Vucic is in Brussels on Wednesday for an informal meeting between the leaders of the Western Balkans and the EU leadership. In the afternoon, he met with EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi. In the evening, he took part in a working dinner with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, along with Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski and Kosovo's "foreign minister" Donika Gervalla.
"At the meeting tonight, Mrs. Gervalla confirmed that tomorrow they will apply for membership of the so-called Kosovo in the Council of Europe. This is a violation not only of international law, but also of all norms and UN Security Council Resolution 1244," Vucic told reporters after the working dinner.
He pointed out that Kosovo Albanians do not comply with either the Washington or Brussels agreements with Belgrade, and for more than nine years Pristina has not formed the previously agreed Commonwealth of Serb Communities in Kosovo.
According to Vucic, there is going to be "a very difficult period on this issue" since the Kosovars "think they are using the Ukrainian situation by blaming Serbia, calling it the “hand of Moscow” and telling a lie."

"They will present themselves as great fighters against Russian 'totalitarianism and fascism' and I don't know what else. We will appoint a meeting of the National Security Council in the next 36 hours and will respond politically," the president said.

The latest development comes after reports earlier detailed that the German government was ready to back Kosovo's potential membership into the body, shortly after talk on the matter began to surface.
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