Belgrade and Pristina are finishing their diplomatic activities ahead of the first measuring of strengths in the UNESCO Executive Council, which is set to decide on Wednesday whether it will, on the basis of the request submitted by Albania, give its recommendation for Kosovo’s membership in that organization, what should be decided in November at the UNESCO’s General Assembly.
States that are against Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO have unofficially announced that they will request indefinite postponement of discussion about Albania’s request. Belgrade is aware that voting procedure at the Executive Council is not favorable, because Pristina would need simple majority to win recommendation, thus the work has been invested in ‘convincing’ members states, which could abstain from voting to support postponement of discussion over this topic. Paper’s source say that it is uncertain whether the situation could be changed in favor of Belgrade already at the Executive Council, and that more realistic option would be sending a strong message from this body that would prevent Pristina from receiving two-thirds of votes at the UNESCO General Conference, without abstained votes. However, Executive Council’s procedure also provides that voting could take place even without any discussion.
Former Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the United Nations Vladislav Jovanović told Danas that decision on Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO has already been brought in another place, because western powers have decided to accelerate the process of Kosovo’s membership in international organizations. He also added that Belgrade’s aspiration to become the EU member and its soft approach in Brussels dialogue, where it dropped the level of defense of Kosovo, goes in favor of Pristina, thus it is estimated that resistance of Serbia toward Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO would be temporary and transient.
