Multimillion insurance companies don't give money to the Red Cross

These obligations are assigned under the Red Cross Law that was adopted in the Kosovo Assembly in June 2010.

According to this law, the sub-companies are said to be tasked with one percent of the value of providing each vehicle to go to Red Cross accounts”.

Members of the Red Cross consider it unfair to fail to establish legal obligations while representatives of the industry stress that the relevant law discriminates against this industry.

Ademi Nura, member of the Kosovo Red Cross leadership, tells Radio Free Europe, that the debt value is more than one million euros and that by now “no cent has been deposited in the accounts of this organisation”.

On this issue, it shows that the Kosovo Red Cross has indicted in judicial bodies insurance companies for disrespecting the Law for the Red Cross.

The subx0-companies have been indicted, by some we have won the court process, but now they're going to complain on the other scale. I think this job is going to end, except it takes time”, Nura says.

According to official data, more than 315 thousand vehicles are registered in Kosovo. Insurance prices vary depending on motor vehicle specifications, ranging from 60 to 250 euros.

Meanwhile, 15 foreign-owned insurance companies operate on the Kosovo market. Representatives of this industry have told Radio Free Europe that this law discriminates against this sector, as they say no other sectors are no longer charged with such obligations.

On the other hand, Shpend Balija, executive director of the Council of European Investors in Kosovo, in an interview for Radio Free Europe, says the law is unclear and does not specify who should be paid, how should these be paid, should the citizen be delivered, should the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo take over these payments.

“If a company or a specific sector is illegally established by law or by the interpretation of the court that private capital pays off an institution such as the Red Cross, then this is violation of fundamental property rights”.

“means even though it is financial capital it is private property and no one has the right to take a property or to narrow down a private capital with no real basis for expropriation or compensation”, Balija says.

The ombudsman in Kosovo has also been informed of the matter through the Association of Insurance.

Ombudsman Hilmi Jashar, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, says that following the analysis this institution concludes that this is not compatible with the Kosovo Constitution.

Furthermore, Jashar indicates that since some companies are in court process, as the institution has been sent a legal opinion to the Foundation Court about what the epilogue should be like in these cases.

We've seen and concluded it's a violation. We have also seen decisions in other Constitutional courts. An identical situation has been in Croatia as well, and Croatia's Constitutional Court has declared such a formulation illegal, in one of the laws in which they have had it for insurance companies to pay one percent of their Red Cross revenues”.

A few days ago we also talked to the chairman of the Supreme Court of Kosovo that this Court eventually initiates a process at the Constitutional Court known as law enforcement control” said Jashar.

Insurance companies are being monitored by the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo.

In a response to Radio Free Europe, bank officials have said “The CEC has asked the institutions which oversee and regulate to comply with the demands of the legislation in force”.

According to information available to the CEC, the issue of payment to the Red Cross is reportedly under trial.

Kosovo's red cross is the only Red Cross National Association in Kosovo, which develops its humanitarian, voluntary, non-profit activity on the entire territory of Kosovo. / REL