Senic: Russia important for issue of Kosovo's CE membership

BELGRADE - Member of the Serbian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Aleksandar Senic said Thursday that further suspension of Russia's voting rights in this international body could weaken the position of Serbia regarding Kosovo's bid to join the Council of Europe (CE).

The 18-member Russian delegation is one the largest in the PACE.

If Kosovo demanded full CE membership in the absence of Russia, it would pose "a major challenge" for Serbia, Senic told Tanjug.

He said that the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy held a debate on the situation in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) and the role of CE.

During the debate, a letter written by Abbot of the Visoki Decani Monastery Sava Janjic, on the position of non-majority communities in Kosovo, was read.

The former foreign minister of Kosovo Enver Hodzaj, now serving as head of the Kosovo parliament's foreign affairs committee, said that Kosovo will apply for full CE membership in the coming months, added Senic.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland said, however, that Pristina's CE membership bid has not yet reached Strasbourg and if it had, the road to full membership would be a long one.

Jagland pointed to the political aspect of this bid. I do not think that at this point anyone would want to interfere with the process of EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, said Jagland in an interview to Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti.

The PACE ratified the credentials of delegations from all CE member states except Russia, whose credentials were challenged by head of the UK delegation. In line with the procedure, the committee sessions to draft a resolution on this matter started...