Kosovo prime minister deplores new condition ahead of Council of Europe’s membership vote next week

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Kosovo’s prime minister has deplored the fact that some Western powers reportedly have set another condition ahead of Kosovo’s joining the Council of Europe. Kosovo media reported that France and Germany want Kosovo to take a significant step toward establishing an association of its Serb-majority municipalities in the north to unblock a vote of full membership next week at the the continent’s foremost human rights body. Ethnic Albanians comprise the country’s overall majority with about 93% of the population. The association would coordinate work on education, health care, land planning and economic development in the Serb-majority cities and towns. There were no immediate official statements or confirmations of the reports from Paris or Berlin.