"Regardless of its status, Kosovo must be a safe territory for the people who live there, regardless of their ethnical origin; a territory in which the values of democracy, tolerance and multiculturalism are shared by the population and by its institutions". Lluís Maria de Puig, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), speaks of the declaration of independence, proclaimed by the Kosovari authorities, an issue that had been on the agenda of the plenary session of the Assembly last January. De Puig invites the parties "to fulfil their commitments to keep peace and dialogue in every circumstance and to abstain from any instigation to violence". In addition, he points at the need to respect the CoE rules "about human rights, constitutional state, rights of minorities, treatment of refugees, evacuees and stateless people". The president of PACE expresses "regret" for the fact Belgrade and Pristina "failed to reach agreement on the status of Kosovo" and invites the EU countries, which are also members of the CoE, "to find agreement on one single point of view" and work for the reconciliation of the region.
