MP PANić vs. Haradinaj Government bill for Pristina

The Commission for Public Administration, Local Governance and Media has sent the draft law for Pristina to the first reading session. However, there were numerous remarks about this bill, calling it weak and interference in other laws, such as it is for the Kosovo Police.

Presenting the bill to the members of the Commission did it -- Deputy Minister of Management and Local Power Union Krasniqi, who said the characteristics of the draft law for the Kosovo capital -- are that it determines additional competencies for the capital and additional financing for it.

The capital's additional competencies under the bill will be in the security, health, budget and public enterprise management sector.

“Public text, police establish the Police Directorate for the capital, whose organisation and operation are regulated by the Police Law, which will have competencies only for the capital's territory. Health protection, the capital has competence for providing secondary health care, including registration and licensing health care institutions, payment, training of administrator staff. The capital establishes the capital's hospital, whose functioning is regulated with relevant legislation to power”, Krasniqi said.

But remarks to this bill were chaired by Commission Chairman Nat Hasani, under whom this bill does not meet the criteria and that it does not differentiate anything from the law of local self-government.

This law on the basis of my analysis, the experts who have worked on this law and everyone else, this law is just for an additional municipality, it's not a law for the capital exactly, we're needing law on the capital as other states have. So I said take a model or Ljubljana, or Skopje, everyone has a model of how they're organized. If we want to do the same to make a law on the Pristina municipality, we no longer speak about Pristina, but about the capital”, Hasani said.

Kosovo Initiative MP Milaim Zeka has held the LDK and PDK responsible, why the country's capital is now without law. He even called the law on Pristina a political game, as it has now come to political games. He called this bill weak.

Representatives of the Kosovo Police also spoke of the bill.

Riza Shiova from police said this bill should be in line with the law on Police and Constitution, as there is very good interference in the Police Law.

If we refer to the Police Law exactly, we see that establishing separate units is done at the request of the general director and the minister's approval, not with a request of a local or central government structure and with the principal's approval. Here the word has been of police law provisions to establish structures at the central level that will have competence in Kosovo's entire territory for very specific, very specific issues related to specialised entities. That's why we're considering that there's interference in the organisational issues of KP”, Silova said.

According to Shilovova, the police's organisation and territorial competence is regulated by the Police Law and there is no example somewhere that says the police's functioning by another law is regulated.

He added that also paragraph 1. Point 1.2 which states that the chairman after the approval of the capital's assembly proposes the minimum director-general two candidates for the capital's directorship can't be, as such was taken as analogy by Serbian municipalities, which should not happen in other municipalities. Even so, according to Shilova, they should not always be, but only as a temporary provision.

However, support of this bill has also been given by Vetevendosje MP Shpe Pantina, who said the bill meets the criteria for the capital in principle, as Kosovo's capital must have additional status from other municipalities.

I think that in principle I meet the needs a capital law should have. It is normal for the capital to have other status from other Kosovo municipalities, for the fact that administrative and diplomatic life is concentrated in the capital, and usually capitals, not necessarily, but also offer higher education services, it means most universities are concentrated. This implies that capitals should provide additional services, not only to their permanent residents, but also to temporary residents”, she said.

While LDK deputy Imet Canman said they would support this bill, but said the follower of the law's failure to place dates, as problems are emerging when they are not being realised.

He called the construction of Pristina's hospital a great challenge within two years, as it is envisioned, as there are budgetary implications and new employment needs.

The commission at this meeting also made a decision to form the working group for drafting the RTK law, in which all members of the Commission will be in. The Commission also formed the working group for drafting the Bill for the Independent Council of Overseers for the Kosovo Civil Service.