Kosovo on Friday criticized the Council of Europe 's decision against holding a vote on its membership, saying it deprived its people and especially its ethnic minorities of democratic tools offered by the continent’s top human rights body.
Kosovo’s membership was not on the agenda of the council's foreign ministers meeting after some members had required Kosovo to create an association of Serb-majority municipalities in the country's north before a vote could take place. Kosovo fears such a setup could turn into another Republika Srpska with broad autonomy. Republika Srpska is the name for the part of Bosnia-Herzegovina run by ethnic Serbs.
