Kurt meets the mayors, they make six demands ( Content

Kosovo Communist Association Chairman Agim Aliu has addressed a series of requests at a meeting with the Government of the Republic of Kosovo.

Full speech:

Dear Prime Minister Kurti;

Honored Ministers of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo;

Respected mayors and representatives of Kosovo municipalities;

Ladies and gentlemen!

At the top of my speech, representing the Association of Kosovo municipalities, I want to express our thanks to the arrangement of this meeting, where it gives us the opportunity, that two levels of power -- the local and central -- to discuss and present common challenges to get the right institutional address.

We, the mayors, with you Prime Minister, we have held several meetings on the timeline of your governance, in which meetings, we have presented our challenges, the understanding of sectoral actions, and for all of these, in addition to the presentation as challenges, we have presented relevant proposals, professional suggestions, developed by the established expertise and which have received assessments from abroad, professional colleges within the Kosovo Commission Association.

So for the challenges, we've proposed solutions, but for many of them, we're still waiting to address the ministerial levels under the Government of the Republic of Kosovo government, given that, as such, these proposals and therefore solutions for them, affect large and radically, the daily work of local government and that, as well, these are not in the competence of our decision-making, but the Government of the Republic of Kosovo.

Your Honor. Prime Minister!

We, the mayors of the municipalities, have the conviction that we must change the tradition of non-consultation, as well as communication approach, by investing in a quality communication report by the Ministers of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, for proposals for changes or adoptions of various legislative initiatives, which directly infect local power.

Such was the approach for the Law on Local Self-government, as well as for the process of amending the Law on Taxation in Property, for which the Association of Kosovo municipalities, subsequently, were excluded from consulting, respectively, the joint decision making, when well known that this law in the current state, damages the municipal budget in value, thus violating the financial autonomy of municipalities and in this sense municipal responsibilities, until the least income to municipalities, reduce development for projects that have this basic resource.

Just as challenging is the financial situation of municipalities from the burden of obligations as a result of the Kolective contracts, where even for this challenge, we have demanded that central decision institutions share additional budgets, to facilitate this financial burden of municipalities, although we are reported to cut off these contracts, but many of the obligations are still under way and almost all of them, in accounting procedures by causing systematic disorders in municipal budgets.

The mayors of the municipalities, through the Association of Kosovo municipalities, have also insisted on creating the possibility of establishing local public enterprises under the Public Enterprises Law, deemed it necessary to increase the quality of the quality of expansion of services for citizens, but that, as such, has not yet been processed according to this proposal by the ministerial level.

Your Honor, Prime Minister. Kurti!

Dear ones present!

Even in view of budgetary planning for 2024, ceilings set by the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transference have led to significant cuts in municipal budgets in the category of capital investments, which stipulates 2024, with less capital investments.

We, as well as the distribution of public funds through projects different from the Government ministries of the Republic of Kosovo, have continued to insist that they be done with clear meter parameters, without the need for favour, judged by the weight, needs and importance that those projects present to the citizens of the respective municipalities.

In this context, we have requested the creation of the Fourth Grant for Capital Investment in the municipalities, where our proposal is that over 100m euros dedicated to capital investments in municipalities, be directly divided for municipalities, and not through relevant ministries, to ultimately guarantee equality for municipalities in terms of developing capital projects, with central financing.

A challenging issue of additional financial burden on insufficient municipal budgets is also the obligations we have recently been announced, which are set forth with the Social Banim Bill, where the Social Work Centres operating within municipalities will have additional budgetary costs with millions of euros and which budgetary means will not be covered by the central level.

These additional costs, said more specifically, will be dedicated: spending on goods and services for the administrative and operational needs of the Social Work Centres, spending on the category of subsidies and transfers to support and finance social programmes for civil society organisations with the focus of this field of operations, and also with influence in the category of capital investments, meaning building new centres and restoring existing social work centres, all of this money under the bill, being delivered by budgets, so without any additional budget being implemented by the Government to implement this legal obstacle to society.

Your Honor. Prime Minister Kurti!

Find the occasion, that even at this meeting, I remember the subjects we've raised at our last joint meeting with the mayors, and that was:

1. The founding of the Fourth Grant that will create equality for Kosovo municipalities.
2. Acceleration of procedures in the establishment of sublaw acts (on the basis of the new Law for Public Officials) regulating recruiting procedures in municipalities, with emphasis on allowing the waiting list in education and health.
3. The return of property currently managed by the Kosovo Property Agency, to municipal management, these that are designated and declared by municipalities for public interest and which municipalities have initiated project procedures and reported the central level in writing.

Here let me also put the anchor in the need for fast action, in terms of these properties, when recently, as it is known, we have been selected for the organisation of the Mediterranean Games, where numerous investments are provided in sports infrastructure, as well as the construction of new sports capacities -- stadiums for which we have signed agreements with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports -- facts that make immediate responses from the central level -- to enable the development of projects on these properties -- when well known that many municipalities do not own municipal space that will enable development of these projects.

4. To create legal mechanisms for carrying property managed by the Agency for Project Development Forests, as well as in other cases, to avoid bureaucratic procedures for providing municipal development permits, which charge public interest above all.
5. It is not allowed to allow economic areas in municipalities to shift to central-level responsibilities but to continue to be managed by the municipalities.
6. Return the Public Procurement Bill to complement changes because it is currently causing trouble and delays at the local level in performing many jobs and development projects;

At last, honored ones present!

Dear Prime Minister Kurti!

We, the mayors of the Kosovo Communist Association, are faithful that our demands, our proposals, the needs of local government throughout Kosovo, will have your attention, receive the proper institutional address, being allies in the vision to serve better, our fellow citizens.

Thank you.