Pension schemes law, Gashi: Parliament decision is delayed

The current law on pension schemes envisions the right to benefit from the contributed pension only for those who testify they have contributed for 15 years to the former Pension Fund. For those who were violently fired from the then Serbian regime, it was not possible to enjoy contributing-paying pension because they failed to meet the criteria of 15 years of work experience.

Police Gashi from the Association of Pensioners of Kosovo has said that today's decision by the Parliament is delayed despite the fact that the Constitutional Court has also seen it realised on 15 July.

A violation has been made and we have no data regarding this draft law that has been adopted today at the Kosovo Assembly session. Since in the law for the pension schemes of the previous law there have been major concessions in which we have had remarks and applied to be part of the Commission to draft this bill, we have not consulted, we have not been invited and simply served something that we should expect to see what is offered to us, Gashi said in RTK.

Gashi has warned that if this decision is further approved, they will complain via legal means and even if this is not realised, protests will also be organised.

If that doesn't happen, we're going to seek the protection of international institutions, because it's really lost all meaning and every reserve of our patience for these injustices that have been happening to us for years”, he said.

Commenting on the outline of all citizens who have left their jobs in the years of '90s whose contribution has not been recognised, and as a result, have failed to meet the 15-year statistical criteria to benefit from contributing pension, Gashi has stressed that this category is discriminated against.

A very large number of those employed at the time were illegally fired and they were once penalised, and now they're being penalised for the second time because they're missing several years and this is monetary compensation and not all-involved”, said Niazi Gashi from the Association of Pensioners of Kosovo.

He said the number of beneficiaries from pension schemes is estimated to be between seven thousand and ten thousand pensioners who have failed to meet the 15-year condition and will benefit.

But it is a large number of those who are now no longer in life and we do not know what will happen to those who have been denied the right for years and will begin compensation from when people have retired, or will start executing the decision after adopting this 34x1> law, Gashi said.

According to the Government of Kosovo estimates, currently, in the planning of basic retirement there must be about 70,000 persons who should actually qualify for the financial retirement of age. This new pension scheme for those who left their jobs in the years of BAR90s is estimated to cost the state about 60m euros a year.