EU Office in Kosovo urges political parties to be transparent for their financing

EU Office and O Mission The SEU in Kosovo organised a joint worker on the subject “Funding the Political Party”, where it was urged by political parties to be more accountable and transparent.

Ricardo Serry from the EU Office said they aim at empowering the election process.

He mentioned the audience's findings in recent elections and the transparency of political parties, where he said they are not encouraging at all. According to him, transparency and accountability of political subjects are the path towards the EU.

Kosovo will urgently need to control political finances, transparencys on donations and exploitation. Some of the problems that have been found, because if we look at the audience reports, and I believe most of you have done so, those findings are very distressing. According to independent audiences who have conducted these investigations, political parties have failed to ensure accountability, internal reporting, financial reporting and compliance with legal requirements in terms of their finances. Many political parties have failed to uncover or report part of their spending. And it's also disturbing that audiences haven't been educated to identify a lot of large sums of the revenues of many political parties. Many documents have not been hers or adequate. That's why it's very good that the audit happened”, he said.

Serry appreciated the effort to make the Law.

Central Election Commission Chairman Valdete Daka said changing the For Election Law is of particular importance.

According to her, this law also matters in fighting corruption.

I'd like to underline the importance of adopting this law. This has been the recommendation of even intercompeterators, as the main caution has been that political parties have not been transparent”, she said.

While Isabel Servoz-Gallucci, chief of the Council of Europe Office, said the particular fact of this workshop is that it has been a request to the Kosovo side, for the first time directly from the prime minister.

Christopher Tuetsch, director of O Department of Democraticization The SEU had a recommendation for fines imposed by the CEC and PZAP.

“Plans for political parties should not be dropped by the fund that is separated from the Kosovo budget or any fund that is set aside for the political parties, otherwise this is not punishment because this is paid by society”, he said.