Parliamentary Diplomacy in Support of Foreign Policy

With active participation of members of the Assembly at various international forums and activities, they can contribute to representation of state interests in the international field.

Commission for Foreign Affairs and Diaspolia's head in the Kosovo Assembly, Time Kadrijaj, told Radio Free Europe, that the commission still does not have the work plan, as the government has not yet brought the programme to the Assembly. However, parliamentary diplomacy, she says, should be co-ordinated and have new recognitions for the country.

We'll try to harmonise things and not stop. The main goal is to ask the friendly countries that are in the European Union to influence the five EU states that have not recognised Kosovo's independence. But, even lobbies in other states that in the event of Kosovo's application for membership in various international organisations, have their support”, Kadrijaj said.

Parliamentary diplomacy is not doubling or replacing traditional government diplomacy, but through its means contributes to the country's best avocal capacities. MP Kadrijaj says that in this respect must be worked jointly for the country's benefit.

“We as the commission all we can do is try to extend through parliamentary diplomacy to the international sphere so that Kosovo can be represented with dignity as well as recognition required, visa liberalisation required, membership in various organisations”, she said.

Kosovo's citizenship on the international level continues to be contested by Serbia and Russia, which are implementing a co-ordinated campaign to prevent new recognitions and recognition of Kosovo from some countries that have already recognised it. Such actions, particularly those of Serbia, are estimated to have influenced some states to question their decisions on recognising Kosovo's independence, as well as undermining Kosovo's efforts to integrate into regional and international initiatives.

Butrint Berisha from the Pristina Institute for Political Studies tells Radio Free Europe that parliamentary diplomacy has an outstanding role in implementing foreign policy.
According to him, the work of the Commission for Foreign Affairs and the diaspora should be greater than it has been until now.
He says MPs through friendship groups and parliamentary groups can infiltrate even countries that have not recognised Kosovo's independence.

The “Deputates or the Commission in question are able to access in a way that is actually in other institutions that some institutions cannot do. They must work closely with the diplomatic academy, but even with the Foreign Ministry in order to have the real capacity needed to implement an external policy on the line of priorities they are, which so far have been missing”, Berisha said.
Berisha considers that the moment Kosovo is at, even foreign policy should have an active and multi-dimensional parliamentary diplomacy.

The “Deputies of the Kosovo Assembly should have an intensifying of the role of friendship and an added role in representing foreign policy in general”, Berisha said.

In addition to the assistance Kosovo foreign policy can get from parliamentary diplomacy, but in the function of supporting Kosovo in the international plan, Kosovo and Albania have signed an agreement for joint implementation of foreign policy, including the establishment of joint diplomatic missions.