EU awaiting Constitutional Decision for Public Officials Law

The European Union is awaiting the Constitutional Court's decision on the Law on Public Officials, which was sent for the second time in the week to this court despite changes made in it.

The Office of the European Union in Kosovo said this Law allows excessive discrimination in recruiting and transferring civil servants, undermining its impartiality and expecting Kosovo to fulfil pledges for a legislative framework in line with EU standards.

In a response to RTV21, the EU office in Kosovo said the Kosovo Assembly has not taken into account EU councils and that the law does not address the Constitutional Court's recommendations in 2023 in an adequate manner and risks going against them.

Our key <x0 concerns, which have been raised in different EU opinions of this law, concern changes that have been made to leadership positions in the civil service, allowing timelessness and instability through the determination of time-limited mandates and external recruiting for all leadership positions, rather than security and predictability in the career of civil servants needed for its professionalisation. Moreover, it allows excessive discrimination on recruiting and transferring civil servants, undermining his impartiality. Also, with regret we see that all such changes in the Law for Public Officials have been handed over to parliament without preliminary public consultations”, the EU office's response in Kosovo reported.

Days ago The PDK and the LDK submitted the Law for Public Officials to Constitutional, accusing power of tendency to capture independent institutions. These charges were denied by the ruling party, the Vetevendosje Movement, which said that all EU recommendations and not only are taken into account in the Law for Public Officials.

Meanwhile, the EU said it is awaiting the Court's decision on the Law for Public Officials, and that it expects Kosovo to fulfil its pledges for a professional public administration.

The Public Administration Reform “is an essential part of Kosovo's road towards the EU. Under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement of the Reformation, Kosovo has pledged to develop a professional, efficient and accounting public administration to bring Kosovo closer to the EU and for the good of citizens. For these reasons, we expect Kosovo to meet these pledges and have a legislative framework that is in line with EU standards. The EU is awaiting the Court's decision on this matter”, the EU Office for RTV21 said.

On October 30th of this year, the parliamentary majority adopted amendments to the Law for Public Officials after the Constitutional Court had declared some provisions of this law invalid, forcing the decision to make necessary changes.