Kosovo will make a new attempt at joining Interpol after its last bid failed in November, Kosovo Interior Minister Ekrem Mustafa said on Friday, reported Kosovo-based Indeks Online news website.
Mustafa told the website that Interpol had confirmed receiving the application.
Albanian-language news website Kallxo.com said it had seen e-mails sent by Mustafa and Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to Interpol’s Secretary-General, Juergen Stock, saying Kosovo wished to apply again.
In November, 68 Interpol member states voted in favour of Kosovo’s application, while 51 voted against and 16 abstained. A two-thirds majority of the 194-member organisation is required for the application to be accepted.
This was the third time Interpol has rejected Kosovo’s membership. The first two bids had also failed to get enough votes in 2015 and 2016 respectively, while in 2017 it withdrew its application before the vote due to lack of support.
Belgrade interpreted Kosovo’s latest failure to join Interpol as a huge diplomatic victory, while Pristina blamed the failed vote on Serbia’s aggressive campaign against its membership in international organisations.
Soon after Kosovo failed to join Interpol, Pristina imposed 100 percent import tariffs on goods from Serbia and Bosnia. The move instantly stopped the EU-brokered Belgrade-Pristina dialogue on normalisation of relations. Despite repeated requests by the US and the EU for Kosovo to suspend the tariffs, Pristina government refuses to comply ever since.
The issue seems to have split top officials in Pristina, with President Hashim Thaci and Parliament Speaker Kadri Veseli calling for the tariffs to be dropped in order to avoid the worsening of relations with the US, and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj remaining firm, saying that the decision is Kosovo’s sovereign matter.
Haradinaj said the government would revoke the decision only after Belgrade recognises the independence of Kosovo, something that Serbian government said it would never do.
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