EU breached several international agreements, says Serbian PM

The EU breached several agreements, said Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić after accepting Kosovo’s Council of Europe membership application.

Kosovo’s Council of Europe application was accepted with 33 out of 46 votes, but Serbian officials, such as Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, noted that “something that is not a state cannot be a member of the Council of Europe.”.

“The Council of Europe is a separate body from the European Union. We are aware of Serbia’s vote against the bid but are focused on the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue”, the EU’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, Peter Stano, told Albanian reporters after being pressed on whether Serbia has broken the Brussels and Ohrid agreements which state that Serbia will not oppose Kosovo’s membership in any international organisations.

“For your information, to our partners from the EU. Serbia also notes that the European Union, once again, directly breached all of the following. Brussels agreement, EU-proposed agreement and implementation Annex from Ohrid, Statute of the Council of Europe, UN charter, UNSCR 1244,” Brnabić wrote on Twitter.

“By the way, I love the part where Stano remarks about a ‘very simple logic’ of negotiations. ‘Each party needs to do something to get something’. In reality, Pristina got more than something for doing exactly nothing. So much for the simple logic”, Brnabić concluded.

Meanwhile, many have argued that Serbia breached multiple parts of other EU-backed agreements, including interference in foreign elections relating to the recent vote in North Kosovo, lobbying against Kosovo’s recognition and membership to international organisations, and voting against its CoE bid.

Two experts from the Parliamentary Assembly’s bureau will further analyse Kosovo’s bid. They will write a report on Kosovo and rate how its judiciary system will align with the Council of Europe’s core principles.

The assembly will then name two rapporteurs from the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy and Committee for Legal Issues and Human Rights, which will make reports that will be considered and voted on in the Parliamentary assembly.

(EURACTIV.rs | Bojana Zimonjić Jelisavac)