The Parliament, Area of Disrespected Resolutions

The Kosovo Assembly this year has been the focus of attention for the review and adoption of a set of resolutions, mainly initiated by opposition political parties.

Since the beginning of the VIth legislature, Kosovo's Assembly has adopted 16 resolutions, acts that express the position or will of the Parliament's deputies on specific issues.

So it has made known about the Life Journal in Kosovo, Agnes Haxhiu from the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), which monitors the legislature's work.

“As decisions that the legally issued Assembly is not binding for institutions to which they are addressed, but they have political effect and as such should be respected by responsible institutions”, Haxhiu says.

According to her, among the resolutions the Parliament has adopted are, that of fighting corruption as criteria for the visa liberalisation process, as has the resolution on implementation of the national programme for implementation of the SAA.

Also among these resolutions is the financial situation in Kosovo's Telekom and Post companies, for the unconscious, domestic violence, for workers' rights, but also for environmental and air protection and improvement. The resolution on the dialogue process for normalising relations between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia” has recently been adopted, the watchdog adds.

Despite the large number of resolutions adopted in the Assembly, problems remain their destiny to be implemented by relevant institutions.

Journalist Agron Halitaj, who attends the work of the Parliament, says of Gazeta Life in Kosovo that in states that have tradition of parliamentaryism, resolutions with the approved become part of the agendas of institutions called for implementation.

This is because the document doers decide to respect the will of the selectors. Basically, that would have to happen in Kosovo, despite the fact that resolutions have no binding character. But this has not happened”, Halitaj says.

Meanwhile, Agnes Hadziu from KDI tells the JNK Journal that lack of implementation mechanisms and sanctions in the event of failure to implement it has caused most of the resolutions issued by the Parliament to fail to be implemented in practice, and the institutions to which they are addressed are not taking responsibility for their implementation.

On the other hand, Agron Halitaj adds that not only resolutions that were adopted this year but also those adopted in previous years have been ignored almost overall.

This speaks of the extreme degradation of the Assembly function and the loss of the MP's credibility. As long as the Parliament is more like a lifesaving agency, not an institution with the weight of the Constitution, it is not expected that resolutions will be implemented. Their fate will be the same -- will end up in drawers and archives”, he told JNK Journal.

Opposition active with resolution

The largest number of resolutions during this Parliament legislature have initiated the opposition political subjects.

Agnes Haxhiu, a KDI monitor, says that out of the 16 resolutions that were issued to the polls from the Parliament, opposition parties have been evidently more active in this direction.

“Vetevendosje Movement, the Democratic League and the Social Democrat Party have initiated 15 out of a total of 16 resolutions as many as”, she said of the JNK Journal.

Meanwhile, according to this number of resolutions, only one of them has not received the Parliament's approval.

This resolution is initiated by LVV and LDK over non-liberalisation of visas. The total number of resolutions are not included even resolutions that are still under voting process, and for lack of quorum have not yet received epilog”, she stressed.

On this issue, LDK deputy Besa Gageri told Gazeta Life in Kosovo that the Assembly of Kosovo has so far approved many resolutions.

But resolutions are not mandatory, that's what everyone knows. The resolution in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo is the political act with which we can be called and we can postpone specific processes”, the MP says.

According to Gager, the LDK resolutions have had a political goal in order to distort the international factor for specific issues.

“must become a specific resolution to specific issues. Any leaders who are at the helm of the process should be informed that they should consult with parliamentary groups”, MP Gager stressed.

Meanwhile, Arberie Nagavci, deputy of the Vetevendosje Movement, told the JNK Journal that resolutions adopted in the Assembly many times have been ignored by the government.

Unfortunately, although the Republic of Kosovo is parliamentary and the Assembly has a very important role, the resolutions that were adopted not only in this legislature, but also in the past many times that we don't always say have been ignored by the government and that's not a good thing. So since the situation is continuing the same in this legislation”, the VV deputy said.

Parliament's Challenges in 2018

Kosovo Democratic Institute monitor (KDI), Agnes Haxhiu, says that the adoption of numerous bills has been presented with difficulties precisely due to lack of quorum in the vote.

However, despite procrastinating laws and lack of quorum to vote on, the Parliament has so far managed to fulfill its 41% legislative agenda. But there are 55 other laws in the procedure by the end of this year, which will be impossible for all of these to be completed by the end of this month. So we're going to have to retake bills from one year to another, as has almost every year”, she says of the JNK Journal.

Although the Parliament stands best, there has been a halt to its role in oversight.

Haxhiu adds that even though MPs have been more active in presenting parliamentary questions and initiating interference, activities for monitoring law enforcement have been missing.

According to KDI, Kosovo's Assembly this year has marked regrance, even in terms of financial transparency.

Kosovo's “Convention has so far published spending reports for the first six months of this year, but even in those reports that have been published lack data concerning the reasons for visits by MPs abroad, the dates of stay on those visits and the fare for each MP”, she added to the JNK Journal.

Haxhiu estimates that not publishing the detailed spending report limits it to the budget management assessment of the Parliament.