Vjosa Osmani: Political deals are under way with ambassadors

The Kosovo Embassy in London has been without an ambassador for several months, the same as is left in Sweden. Nor is the country's liaison office in Belgrade, with which Kosovo is entering a very important phase of dialogue, already without its boss.

Representatives from the opposition and from civil society have told the newspaper “Voice” that this is the responsibility of the Government and President Thaci, after trying to send party militants to Kosovo embassies have left some diplomatic representation without ambassadors.

On the other hand, Parliamentary Commission for Foreign Affairs Chairman Vjosa Osmani, for “Zerin” has said that the commission she is leading has not yet come up with the names of ambassadors whose mandate has expired. According to her, delays to this process are due to political deals within the PAN coalition.

Despite the fact that we requested this information from the MPJ (including the rotation plan), they have not yet been sent to our Commission”, she stressed.

According to her, the reason for their failure to name are the deals being made in the PAN coalition.

“Unfortunately, because of the extreme politicisation of the foreign service everything has turned into markets between coalition partners, and what appears to be one of the main reasons for delays. So far instead of appointing career ambassadors MPJ is continuing to bring political names to be interviewed in the Commission, thus violating legal requirements for at least 50% to be career diplomats”, she said.

Osmani has announced that the names which have already been sent to the Commission are political names, so even the opposition has not taken them as well. The MPJ has brought only political names to the Commission so far, so the opposition has refused to become part of legal violations. Despite that, power deputies have interviewed political ambassadors and forwarded names to the presidency. Now there's only one proposal that hasn't been interviewed and that's political appointment. But still, some states for which no proposals have been submitted remain and countries remain vacant”, Osmani said further.

While relating to Article 7.7 of the Law for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diplomatic Service of the Republic of Kosovo, which requires that at least 50% appointed as head of missions be career ambassadors, while the rest are political appointees, Osmani has said this article is constantly being violated.

“Article 7.7 of the Law for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for the Diplomatic Service continues to be violated and political appointments are now over 2/3, despite the foreign minister's continuing promises that he will respect the quota of 50/50. Therefore, we as opposition are continuing to reject interviewing political appointees because we do not want to be part of this legal offense that is seriously damaging Kosovo diplomacy”, it has suggested.