The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, participated in the event organized by the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD, in the premises of the German Bundestag, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Council of Europe.
Underlining that our country aspires and works for membership in NATO and the European Union, Prime Minister Kurti said that the first step for joining European democracies is membership in the Council of Europe.
“75 years since the creation of the Council of Europe, 25 years since NATO, including Germany, went to war to protect and save the citizens of Kosovo from the horrors of massacres, murders, rapes and mass deportations. 2024 is the right year for the last democracy in Europe that is not yet a member of the Council of Europe to join it”, said Prime Minister Kurti.
In his speech, Kurti called for Kosovo to become a member of the Council of Europe this year. Here he also mentioned the commitments of Kosovo to fulfill the requirements that have been made to join this organization.
One of them is the Association for the Serbian community and the other is the permission of the civil union between the same sexes – the Civil Code, which has not found support in the Assembly of Kosovo so far.
He said that for this he will personally create the parliamentary majority, appealing to the opposition as well.
“Let me give you an example. Kosovo will soon aim to become the second country in the Western Balkans, after our neighbors Montenegro, to offer its citizens the right to same-sex civil unions. We will be working hard to pass this in the very near future. For this I will personally build a parliamentary majority – and I will call for broad support for this from the opposition parties as well. The decision to convene the government on this matter has already been taken.”
Kurti said that this will be done also because the European Court of Human Rights requires it while Kosovo’s request for membership in the Council of Europe is in process.
“We do this because it is a right, because it is a right, because it is in our constitution and because we know that the European Court of Human Rights has issued judgments demanding that this be done. We know that there are countries in the Council of Europe for a long time that have ignored the court on this. Kosovo will be different. In this way, we want to inspire others”, said Kurti.
He also spoke about the minorities in Kosovo, saying that he will solve the “unresolved issues” with the Serbian community as a priority.
“We will also resolve the outstanding issues facing our minorities, their rights and needs, including the Kosovo Serb minority, as a priority. For this too, we are working with German members of the Bundestag to outline new and major initiatives. My meetings here in Berlin for this have been very encouraging”.
