Pantic Pilja: PACE has trampled all norms of international law

STRASBOURG - The head of the Serbian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Biljana Pantic Pilja said on Tuesday evening the body had made a "disgraceful decision" by adopting a recommendation to grant CoE membership to the so-called Kosovo, trampling all norms of international law.

"This is nothing final, but the opinion of the PACE, and we will now see whether it will be tabled to the (CoE) Council of Ministers at all," Pantic Pilja told Tanjug in a comment on a PACE decision to pass a report by rapporteur Dora Bakoyannis, who recommended that the so-called Kosovo be admitted to the CoE.

Asked about Serbia's next steps, Pantic Pilja said she hoped the matter would not even be tabled to the Council of Ministers and that the PACE would realise what kind of mistake it was making.

"I already see that some countries have sent different signals. Colleagues from Italy and Hungary have particularly expressed this through amendments conveying a different stance, sending a signal that there is a chance they will remember that there is a Brussels Agreement and that the false state of Kosovo cannot become a CoE member in this way, by bypassing all procedures," Pantic Pilja noted.