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Deputy Minister of Finance: I left the conference in Tirana because Kosovo was put in a footnote

Politiko 2025-04-15 09:59:52

Deputy Minister of Finance: I left the conference in Tirana because Kosovo was

Deputy Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers, Agon Dobruna, said that he had left a conference in Tirana, Albania, in protest, after the name of Kosovo was accompanied by a footnote.

"Despite our clear and direct request to correct this representation, it was ignored, violating the spirit of cooperation, respect, and equality that the conference itself promotes," Dobruna wrote on Facebook.

The conference Dobruna is talking about was held on April 9 in Tirana and was a regional conference on childcare.

The conference titled "Accelerating Childcare Reforms Towards European Union Membership" was also attended by representatives from North Macedonia and Montenegro, hosted by the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama.

On February 24, 2012, within the framework of the dialogue for the normalization of relations, Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement on regional representation, which later became known as the "footnote agreement".

Based on this agreement, a footnote would be added to Kosovo's name whenever the country was mentioned, to enable representation in various regional and international conferences and initiatives.

"This determination is without prejudice to status and in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the opinion of the International Court of Justice on the act of declaring Kosovo's independence," the agreement states.

Dobruna said that the presence of the footnote forced him to leave and left the declaration of commitment by the Western Balkan countries for regional cooperation in the field of children's rights unsigned.

"The use of the footnote in this context is not a procedural issue – it is a matter of national dignity, respect and equal treatment, especially when the organizer is a friendly country to our Republic," Dobruna wrote on Facebook.

In the years after the signing of the agreement, the name of Kosovo was always accompanied by the footnote symbol in documents of the UN, the EU, and other international institutions.

In recent years, however, in some documents - such as in European Parliament resolutions, or in the Ohrid Agreement documents for the normalization of Kosovo-Serbia relations - the footnote did not follow the name of Kosovo./ REL

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