Pantic Pilja: Pristina's request for CoE special guest status not on agenda for now

BELGRADE  - Pristina's request to be given special guest status in the Council of Europe (CoE) is not on the official agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Political Committee for now, Biljana Pantic-Pilja, who heads the Serbian delegation to PACE, said on Thursday, noting that she did not expect the request to be debated at all during an upcoming PACE session.

In a statement to Tanjug, Pantic Pilja said a regular PACE winter session was scheduled to begin on January 27 and end on January 31 and that PACE committees would hold regular sessions during that time, too.

"A request by the so-called Kosovo to be given special guest status was to be on the agenda of the Political Committee again. For now, it is not on the official agenda that has been sent to us and we expect that the matter will not even be debated at this session," Pantic Pilja noted.

She said there was no support in PACE for Pristina's request.

"We have presented the argument that it makes no sense to give them special guest status because only a state can have such status and that it would be used in Albin Kurti's campaigning for the upcoming elections, and that this is neither the time nor the place to debate that. For now, I am optimistic that it will not be on the agenda," Pantic Pilja said.

Last December, Belgrade also succeeded in getting Pristina's request off the agenda of the PACE Political Committee.