IMF considers Kosovo’s application for membership
The IMF on July 10 received a request for membership from the "Republic of Kosovo" and will evaluate it in a regular procedure.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Kosovo's request will be considered in usual procedure, an IMF statement adds. The procedure takes from six to nine months.
Earlier on Tuesday, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) said that at the IMF meeting on July 14 at which Kosovo's request was discussed, the executive director of the Swiss constituency, which represents Serbia, "quoted a letter by NBS Governor Radovan Jelasic reiterating Serbia's stand that the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence constituted a violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244".
It was also added hat considering the request by interim Pristina authorities for IMF membership constitutes an attempt at imposing a fait accompli.
At the meeting of IMF executive directors, only the representative of Argentina said that IMF cannot decide that Kosovo is a new state on the basis of the voting powers of member-states, and that a decision to this effect can be taken only within the UN.
The IMF legal department, however, has a different interpretation - that IMF is an that IMF is an independent international institution which has the right to take its own decision whether a country is a state.
