Kosovo said it had filed an application to join UNESCO amidst Belgrade’s insistance that this would entail ‘indirect recognition’ of its independence.
Prime Minister Hashim Thaci announced on Thursday that Kosovo had applied to join the UN’s culture arm, UNESCO, marking another step to achieve full recognition of its independence.
“We have just applied for membership in UNESCO, the UN agency for education, science and culture. This follows consultation with partners and after around 130 meetings with the UNESCO delegations held this year,” Thaci wrote in a Facebook announcement.
“This is a step that strongly widens our global interaction. We expect to become members in November,” Thaci concluded.
Last month, Thaci’s deputy, Petrit Selimi, met with UN representatives in New York, where he called Kosovo’s membership of UNESCO “the main focus of its short-term goals”.
However, Serbian officials have reiterated that Kosovo’s membership of such an international organizations would be tantamount to indirect recognition of the country’s independence, which Serbia opposes.
Until it declared independence in 2008, Kosovo was under the administration of the UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, which signed international agreements on its behalf.
After it declared independence, the situation became more difficult, and Kosovo’s participation in regional meetings met protests from Serbian representatives, who often boycotted such meetings.
But in 2012, as part of a Brussels-initiated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, the two signed an agreement laying out the terms for Kosovo’s regional representation.
Under the agreement, in regional meetings, all references would include an asterisk (Kosovo*) with the line “This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.”
This pertained to agreements signed by Kosovo as well.
Serbian officials were alarmed when the Greek Foreign Minister, Nikolaos Kotzias, visited Kosovo on Tuesday and said Greece would support Kosovo’s attempts to join key international organizations.
Greece is one of five EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo’s independence.
Limited recognition has hampered not just Kosovo’s attempts at gaining membership, but also its EU integration processes.
Agreements for Kosovo often include extensive precedents, such as the announced signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which would usually require ratification by the respective parliaments of EU member states. In Kosovo’s case, that would be impossible because five EU countries have not recognized it.
