Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly blasts Kosovo in report

The document was filed by Chairman of the PACE Political Affairs Committee Bjorn von Sydow, who stressed that the situation in Kosovo was "very bad concerning the rule of law".

According to reports, the former Swedish defense minister also stated that there were "problems such as the position of minority populations, violation of human rights, independence of the judiciary, corruption, human trafficking, discrimination, and other".

In his report, which will soon be presented to PACE and based on which a resolution should be adopted, Sydow primarily mentions Kosovo standards rather than Kosovo status, stressing the COE's neutrality regarding the latter and its observance of the Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, says news agency Tanjug.

"That is the main point of my report," Sydow was quoted as saying. "After Kosovo's declaration of independence, I requested that the CoE and PACE should find a common legal denominator, and its motto is: standards not status. That is why I specifically focused on standards, and left aside the issue of status, which is to be assessed by others."

Sydow said that, in his report, he pointed to the areas which should be reformed in order to enable all people in Kosovo to live by European standards.