No CoE Committee of Ministers debate on Pristina's membership bid

STRASBOURG - The Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers did not debate the so-called Kosovo's CoE membership bid on Friday after it was not included in the final agenda adopted before the committee met in Strasbourg, Tanjug learns.

Prior to the meeting, Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto told Tanjug his country did not support Pristina's membership bid and that its principled position was that it wanted to see a successful finalisation of the Belgrade and Pristina dialogue.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting, German FM Annalena Baerbock called on Pristina to meet the required conditions as soon as possible to enable Germany to encourage a majority of CoE member states to back its admission to the organisation.

French Secretary of State for European Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot said his country believed the issue of Pristina's CoE membership could cause divisions within the organisation at this stage and that it should be discussed later, once Pristina completed the necessary path.

Previously, in a letter to Pristina's PM Albin Kurti, France, Germany and Italy noted that Pristina had not met the conditions set by the international community for its CoE admission after taking no steps towards establishing a Community of Serb Municipalities, and called on the Pristina government to reconsider a decision to send its own statute of the Community to the so-called Kosovo's constitutional court.