Kosovo makes last-minute push to get its membership in Council of Europe approved in a Friday vote

By ZENEL ZHINIPOTOKU and LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s government is making a last-minute effort to convince Western powers to vote on whether to admit the country as a new member in the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights body. Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz in a letter on Thursday to Theodoros Rousopoulos, the head of the Council of Europe’s Parliament Assembly, said the government would send a draft bill it is working on, outlining its proposal on Serb-majority municipalities, to the country’s Constitutional Court by the end of May. Foreign ministers of the Council of Europe members were to convene Friday but it was unclear whether Kosovo’s admission would be on the agenda — and whether the letter from Gervalla-Schwarz could make that happen.