TIRANA, May 26 – Albanian President Bujar Nishani said Tuesday at the summit of presidents and heads of governments of the South East Europe Cooperation Process that Kosovo had become a full member of the body following an agreement among the other members.
Seven years after declaring its independence from Serbia, Kosovo was granted full SEECP parliamentary assembly membership. Several countries in the group still do not recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia.
At last Saturday’s meeting of parliament speakers, Albanian speaker Ilir Meta said that the decision to grant Kosovo full membership was taken in the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly summit in Tirana.
Meta held a joint press conference in Tirana with the Kosovo parliament speaker, Kadri Veseli, who said that the decision was “historic” and will help in raising the number of countries that recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
Kosovo becomes the 13th member of the organization, with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro and Slovenia.
Kosovo declared its independence on Feb. 17, 2008 and is recognized by about 110 countries, including the U.S., the U.K, France, Germany and Turkey. Serbia, Russia and China are among countries that have not recognized the country’s independence.
