Serbian delegation in Strasbourg: Kosovo elections, Mladić and “Sarajevo safari” on the Council of Europe agenda

Biljana Pantić Pilja, head of the Permanent Delegation of Serbia’s National Assembly to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), took the floor at the Assembly’s autumn session in Strasbourg, where one of the topics of the progress report between the two sessions of the PACE Bureau was the early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, as reported by the Serbian newspaper Danas, which carried the news on 29 September 2026 based on a statement by the Serbian National Assembly.

According to Danas’s reporting, Pantić Pilja reminded deputies that these were the third parliamentary elections in just a year and a half, “which shows the depth of the political instability and institutional crisis in Kosovo and Metohija.” She raised the question of why the Council of Europe had not reacted to the attacks on the EU Rule of Law Mission in Pristina (EULEX) and other international institutions after the recent announcement of verdicts against former KLA leaders.

The head of the Serbian delegation also warned, Danas writes, of attacks on Serbs in Kosovo, of endangered security, and of the non-formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities, which is a key obligation of the Brussels Agreement. In her speech she declared: “This institution was created to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. International law is not a menu from which we can choose what suits us politically.”

Pantić Pilja, as the newspaper Danas reports, criticised the toleration of the promotion of Nazism in Croatia and condemned the criticism of the way Ratko Mladić was buried in Belgrade, stressing that every citizen has the right to attend a funeral.

Meanwhile, at the meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, another member of the Serbian delegation, Aleksandar Mirković, opposed the proposal for a resolution on the topic “Sarajevo safari,” saying that the proposal was based on untrue and unconfirmed information, which the courts of several European countries have rejected. After a heated debate, the committee chair proposed that the decision be taken at the December meeting, Danas reports.

The PACE autumn session in Strasbourg runs from 28 September to 2 October 2026. The Serbian delegation is led by Biljana Pantić Pilja, and its members include Aleksandar Mirković, Dunja Simonović Bratić, Elvira Kovač, Vladimir Đorđević and Đorđe Stanković.