EU concerned with several provisions of Kosovo's new Law for Public Officials

“The EU engages in continued dialogue with authorities on all aspects of public administration reform, as this is the key precondition for EU integration and of crucial importance for the functioning of institutions and providing services to the people of Kosovo. The EU is also Kosovo's main partner in support of these reforms”, the EU communiqué says.

“to help Kosovo progress on its EU integration path in this area of reforms, the EU in co-operation with the OBEZH expert team/ SIGMA, has on several occasions presented comments on the bill for public officials and the draft wage bill”.

The EU has said that these comments are intended to better instruct the government to provide a depoliticised and professional civilian service.

They have even said they regret that the Kosovo Assembly has adopted these two laws yesterday despite EU and WTO comments/ SIGMA, as well as SAA pledges.

The “Coments were meant to instruct in the best way and to support the government to secure a depoliticised and professional civilian service, with a transparent merit-based reward system, in line with the principles of public administration reform and with a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (MSA) between the EU and Kosovo”.

“The EU laments that Kosovo's Assembly has adopted these two laws yesterday without taking into account EU and WTO comments/ SIGMA, despite SAA pledges in this field”.

The new “Law on Public Officials is problematic with the assurance of a civil service based on credit that can effectively manage human resources, as it adds excessive freedom of action to recruiting procedures, transfer, and to disciplinary procedures of civil servants, making civil service potentially vulnerable to politicisation<1>.

“The EU will continue to monitor developments affecting public administration reform in Kosovo, will report on these issues in its annual Kosovo reports, and can re-evaluate its assistance in this area”.