Haradinaj officials from the Environment Ministry: If I was a minister, I'd take you home.

The Commission for Agriculture, at the meeting held, has reviewed the action plan for biodiversity 2016-2020.

Ismail Hetemaj of the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning said legal gaps have influenced the situation to be poor, as regards biodiversity in Kosovo.

Driton Caushi, a member of this commission, said the current state of biodiversity is not very optimistic.

I see a little absurdly an action plan, in the legislative sense, and the objectives of increasing protected areas, when we don't have clear information, what is the state of biodiversity today and what happens to this 90 percent of forests that are not protected and are in ruins. As there is destruction of forests, there can be no biodiversity”, he said.

And, Hetemaj said that even those as ministries are not happy with what happens on the ground, but all of this is due to the non-recognition of legislation among ministries.

While Enver Hoti said he doubts that some legal space has been deliberately left, not to realise the envisioned targets.

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Hetemaj had one answer.

And when you said you left me a bit of a mess, when the law didn't say it, it always remained a mess, and then they said the law that the plan should be five years old and that it had played a ball, but the MF is saying the medium-term, it's been saying for three years, since we made the plan for five years when the frame is three years. For the past two years, it's coming out in sharnish, budgetary, that maybe these aren't recording this“, he said.

Commission Chairman Daut Haradinaj said Hetaj's words are not compatible with what his minister had told him.

“As far as the capacity of the ministry's Inspectorate is concerned, it's good to consult a little that the minister and chief inspector did not say your words. You know, Garrant, you're not really communicating well with each other. You're coming in here. She said we took measures we've given 50 thousand euros in sentences, you're saying no to”, he said.

Besa Gageri demanded clarification as to whether there were sentences pronounced regarding the destruction of biodiversity.

Hetteaj said there were no sentences at all, since Kosovo has only one natural inspector.

And as far as biodiversity is concerned, I don't know that there's been any lawsuits for destruction of biodiversity, and this has ended with any criminalisation by the courts. Fernikonile has been convicted, Elez Khan has been sentenced to 50 thousand, I have no knowledge. I didn't say there's no punishment there, but I don't know about the destruction of biodiversity. I'm an official at the Ministry, but I don't know there was any punishment. An inspector is at the whole of Kosovo for the protection of nature”, he said.

But for Haradinaj, it is unreasonable to be the same argument every year, that there is no harmonisation of laws and institutions.

And Commission Chairman Daut Haradinaj was tough with Hetemaj, telling him that if he were the minister, he would take him home.

If I were minister, I had to take it to the house”, he said.

The meeting continued with the review of the 2017 annual report by the Kosovo Memorial Complex Management Agency.