In the context of accession of so-called “Kosovo” to the World Customs Organization (WCO), today’s WCO session revoked “Kosovo’s” right to vote; indefinitely suspending its accession to the Organization, convening an extraordinary session of the WCO Council for the end of the year, and recommending the set-up of a working group to examine, in the interim, the “Kosovo” case and propose to the Council a solution regarding its future status. Meanwhile, the decision adopted in 2012, declaring “Kosovo’s” admission to the WCO premature, would remain in force.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, and the Customs Administration worked together to challenge the illegitimate attempt to admit the so-called “Kosovo” to the World Customs Organization, after Belgium, as the depository of the Convention, and the WCO Secretariat, attempted – in contravention of the 2012 Council decision that “admission of Kosovo is premature until further notice”- to admit so-called “Kosovo” to the Organization and put to the vote the decision to include its admission in the agenda of the WCO Council in Brussels – despite the protests of the Republic of Serbia and some 20 other countries.
Membership of so-called “Kosovo” has been suspended at the request of Serbia pending the next Council session.