Member of the Bundestag Knut Abraham said on Friday that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will independently decide on the criteria for Kosovo’s membership in this mechanism.

He made these comments following the statement of the US envoy Gabriel Escobar, who in an interview with Radio Free Europe (RFE), said that after Kosovo fulfilled the requirement for the implementation of a Constitutional Court decision on the properties of the medieval monastery of Deçan, there are two other conditions for Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe.

Escobar said that the implementation was a difficult decision, but it had to be done and “it will have an effect. Now, there are two other conditions that the Council of Europe had mentioned and that some European countries are demanding. One has to do with some actions regarding property seizures happening in the north. And the other is the Association (of municipalities with a Serbian majority).”

But the German deputy, Knut Abrahams, wrote on the X platform, “We appreciate Escobar’s concerns, but we can assure him that the Parliamentary Assembly will independently define Kosovo’s membership criteria for the Council of Europe and assess their fulfillment. The US would not fulfill these criteria because of the death penalty.”

The government of Kosovo decided to implement the decision by which the medieval monastery of Deçan is granted property rights to over about 24 hectares of land, as it is directly linked to Kosovo’s application for membership in the Council of Europe.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the decision of the Constitutional Court as “strange” and “unfair”, but stressed that “there is no doubt that Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe would be not only a historic victory but also a giant step for our Republic towards recognition by the European Five, which enables NATO and EU membership for independent Kosovo.”