Government leaving chaos with functions and decision making

Following his resignation on July 19th, Ramush Haradinaj had addressed the Constitutional Court on 29 July, with a request for the definition of the government's competencies and office under circumstances created after his resignation. The Constitution has yet to give any interpretations on this request.

Meanwhile, some of the ministers in the Kosovo government's resignation, even after Haradinaj's resignation, as well as following the surrender of the application to the Constitutional Court, have not ceased making different decisions.

While the outgoing Kosovo government ministers make decisions believing they are in harmony with the Constitution and laws, civil society representatives prefer to have the Constitutional Court act expected so that the legitimacy of these decisions is not disputed.

The prime minister himself in resignation, Ramush Haradinaj, at the Kosovo Parliament's distribution session, was not sitting in the prime minister's seat.

He said he is not clear whether he is still prime minister.

I am not a government speaker, I have no right to be in the hall, I was a parliamentary group of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. I'm head of the political party. If the Constitutional Court predicts that we should carry out the functions of the Government in the resignation, obviously I have not deserted, it stands ready for any task not to stop life in the country in particular in those areas that are emergency”, Haradinaj said in a press proposal.

Like Haradinaj, Finance Minister Bedri Hamza has declared that without the Constitutional Court's ruling, he cannot separate the necessary financial means from the budget for organising early elections.

But, since Haradinaj and the ministers, like Bedri Hamza's case, do not know whether to proceed with their positions, some other ministers have continued with regular work, making decisions on certain issues.

On 21 August, the Ministry of Innovation through a communique had announced that it would invest 200 thousand euros in the opening of the Multifunctional Innovative Centre in Development.

Similar reports have been addressed by several other ministries.

Constitutional Law Affairs Professor Mazbul Baraliu tells Radio Free Europe that the Constitutional Court would have to come up with an interpretation of Haradinaj's request as soon as possible.

According to him, there is not much to be done and to deepen in this matter, since the Constitution of Kosovo, according to him, is clear at this point.

The “will need to have the Constitutional Court's opinion as soon as possible on this requirement so that if the resigned ministers are right and the government is down with the outgoing prime minister to bring decisions, make decisions, then the cabinet has had to continue holding regular meetings and make decisions as far as it has been within the mandate. But this is not being done by the Constitutional Court, and we hope it will be done as soon as possible in order to remove the” dilemmas, Baraliu says.

According to him, until a Constitutional Court decision by the spirit of the Constitution and the laws in force, the government is entitled to do the following technical administrative works, right and obligation to implement the decisions made by the government cabinet in the mandate until no resignation is given and controls, oversees the implementation of various decisions and projects.

Make decisions should be made in the cabinet. Government meetings will have to be held and those issues to be handled and government decisions voted on. This is a law practice because Kosovo does not have more than that because we do not have the Law for the government where more precisely the obligations and duties of government should be defined in any judicial situation, so even in this situation of institutional vacuum following the resignation of Prime Minister”, Baraliu says.

On 29 July, Prime Minister to Resign Ramush Haradinaj has submitted to the Constitutional Court the request for definition of competencies.

From that day Kosovo's Constitutional Court has a 60-day legal deadline to provide an answer.

Kosovo's Assembly has been distributed in Kosovo this week, and within 45 days early elections for the new composition of Kosovo's seventh legislature will be held.