The General Assembly of INTERPOL began on Sunday in Dubai. The most important topic on the agenda for Belgrade and Pristina is the vote on Kosovo’s admission to this organization. Serbia is strongly opposing this, not only because it does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, but because, as officials from Belgrade claim, the databases would be “used for criminal purposes“. Officials in Pristina are expressing the same suspicions about Serbia. In the meantime, both sides are awaiting the vote and are actively lobbying for their positions -which Kosovo has been doing since 2015.
It would be better if they had not registered, it will be a debacle – the Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, however, sent a different message: „We are left with a difficult, almost impossible mission in INTERPOL.“ The Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Limaj also expressed skepticism.
Following three unsuccessful attempts, the General Assembly of INTERPOL accepted Pristina’s request to consider Kosovo’s application for membership in the international police organization this year.
The vote will take place on Tuesday.
INTERPOL currently has 192 members, including Serbia. A two-thirds majority vote of member states is required for the admission of a new member.
Serbian Minister of Interior, Nebojsa Stefanovic, who is heading the Serbian delegation to Dubai, emphasized that Kosovo’s admission to INTERPOL represents complete politicization of this police organization. Stefanovic is also afraid that it could lead to a „leakage of sensitive information to criminal or terrorist organizations“ and is concerned with „further threats to Serbs living in Kosovo“, Belgrade media reported.
On the other hand, the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs underlined that membership in INTERPOL would be beneficial not only to Kosovo and its citizens, but to all INTERPOL member states and that transnational crime will be the only one to suffer.
The cooperation between INTERPOL and Kosovo is being carried out through UNMIK, through which the wanted lists for Kosovo citizens are also issued, based on a memorandum with INTERPOL, which was signed in 2002. This cooperation was criticized in Pristina for being slow in the processing and exchange of information.
Kosovo’s attempt to join INTERPOL failed in 2016 – at the annual meeting in Indonesia, along with an attempt by Palestine and Solomon Islands. During a meeting of the General Assembly of INTERPOL in China in September 2017, Kosovo decided to withdraw its candidacy. In November last year, the General Assembly postponed the discussion until the end of a study on membership.
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