The European Commission is supporting Kosovo’s bid to join the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
“Membership of the EBRD would be a very important step forward following Kosovo’s accession last year to the [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank and therefore the European Commission is supportive of this objective,” said Olli Rehn, European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, following his Aug. 17 meeting with Ahmat Shala, Kosovo’s finance minister, in Brussels.
At present, five out of 27 European Union countries and 22 of the 63 EBRD member states do not recognize Kosovo, EUobserver.com says.
Kosovo seceded from Serbia in February 2008. Last month, the International Court of Justice ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence did not infringe international law.
“We are very optimistic that Kosovo will reach the necessary votes to be part of this very important institution and hopefully the time for that, the circumstances for that [are positive] after the ICJ gave its approval and many countries sent positive signals on that,” Shala said, as quoted by EUobserver.com.
