Once again the failure of the House: Only four laws adopted for four months

According to estimates by the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), this organisation that monitors the work of the Parliament, the government has been delayed in adopting the legislative agenda and, therefore, delays in adopting the laws.

Agnes Haxhiu, an researcher in KDI, told Radio Free Europe that the dynamics of work in the Kosovo Assembly must increase, on the contrary the adoption of laws will be much behind.

The “Dinamica of the work of the Kosovo Parliament, in terms of the law making, depends heavily on the work of the Government. Even, in fact, the Government has been very late until the agenda's approval. Then, there are other delays in passing the” laws, Haxhiu said.

Within this year, 193 laws are envisioned in the legislative agenda.

Kosovo's Commission for Legislation Chairman Adnan Rrustemi, MP from the Vetevendosje Movement, said that a considerable number of laws would be adopted by the end of the year.

According to him, there are some internal deadlines within the Assembly, which enable the quickest transition of bills.

The “is understood, we are now at the end of the spring session, and the Assembly is expected to go to the beginning of August on vacation, to return to the autumn session in the second week of September. I expect that very big work will cut off the Assembly and MPs, in the sense of reviewing the bills in the fall, because there are now some bills that have been passed on the first reading and that are expected to be passed into working groups”, Rrustemi said.

On the other hand, MP Time Kadrijaj, from the ranks of the opposition political party Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, told Radio Free Europe that the government has been very late in bringing laws to the Assembly.

It is a government that has worked very little on drafting and bringing new bills and on the adoption of their vote. The deadlines that were envisioned for bringing laws to most commissions have been postponed. Now it's vacation time, and the Cup will go on vacation. Knowing what the procedures for adopting the laws are, I say that by the end of the year, there will be very few laws adopted”, Kadrijaj said.

One of the problems in the Kosovo Assembly is the failure to reach quorum. Even earlier in past legislatures, but even now, the Assembly has failed to ratify several international agreements in the absence of quorum.

MP Rustemi said the opposition should do its job and participate in the Assembly hearings, while MP Kadrijaj said the opposition is mostly present at the hearings and meetings of the commissions and parliamentary groups.

Without a co-operation between the ruling and opposition parties, ratification of the agreements will be difficult, Agnes Haxhiu, from the Kosovo Democratic Institute, said.

It is very necessary to create a path of co-operation, a common language with the opposition, because it is the only way these bills can pass. Given that the bills were prosecuted by the Government, it is up to the parliamentary majority and the Government to cultivate a more cooperative approach with the opposition”, Haxhiu said.

To ratify international agreements in the Assembly, the votes of 2/3 of MPs (or 80 out of 120 deputies) are needed.

The agreements expected to be ratified are the appointment of the international Investment Agreement (BEI) for financing the Project for the rehabilitation of the railway line, the Co-operation Agreement between the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Development and the Austrian Investment Agency, the credit framework agreement between the Republic of Kosovo and the Council of Europe Development Bank for financing of the project “Emergency Review to COVI-19ex2>, etc.

The Assembly, so far, has approved ratification of the financial agreement Program of the Instrument for Pre-membership. [File] The IPA] between Kosovo and the European Union, as well as laws for justice, infrastructure and budget.