Vucevic: So-called Kosovo's CoE application breaks all rules

BELGRADE - Serbian Deputy PM and Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said on Wednesday the so-called Kosovo's application for Council of Europe (CoE) membership, to be discussed during the day, was evidently a result of the policy pursued by the sponsors of its so-called independence.

Speaking to the RTS, Vucevic said the application broke all rules and violated all conditions for CoE membership, which he noted the so-called Kosovo did not meet.

For the first time ever, a territory that is not a state is getting an opportunity to join the CoE, he said.

Vucevic said the sponsors of the so-called Kosovo did not comply even with what they themselves had set as Pristina's tasks or obligations.

"They have set three conditions - a return of land to the Decani monastery after eight years, pursuant to a final and executable ruling. The second is what we have been waiting for for 11 years now, if I am not mistaken - a Community of Serb Municipalities, under the Brussels Agreement, sponsored by the EU. And the third is a halt of land and property expropriation in Serb municipalities. But they have now reached a conclusion that the fact Pristina has agreed to execute the court ruling after eight years and return the land to the Visoki Decani is sufficient, and that it is the green light and the time for them to launch the (CoE membership) procedure, so, unfortunately, what we have seen again is a festival of hypocrisy," Vucevic said.