Government: An Association bill has no author

The Kosovo government has reiterated that the draft status proposed by the European Union for the establishment of Association is a document without ownership, without address and without signature. Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi said the government cannot send to the Constitutional Court to interpret newspaper articles.

The government has rejected a request by the US and the EU, which have asked it to submit its draft association to the Constitutional Court for interpretation. Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi said the draft state for the association submitted by the EU has no authorship or signature, therefore according to him, the government does not send newspaper articles to the Constitutional Court.

“We are in the process of membership in the Council of Europe. Kosovo has met all the criteria the Council of Europe has requested from Kosovo. The KIE Parliamentary Assembly has said that Kosovo has met all criteria. Then there have been criteria that have deviated from the European Commission's demands and which have been rejected by the Parliamentary Assembly itself, such as the request to submit the draft Association, which did not actually constitute a draft, nor a document, because it does not have signature, does not have, nor does it have ownership. Until the present moment there are several addresses that have said this is our draft, so we don't send newspaper articles, opinions or drafts that have no author or ownership at the Constitutional Court”, Bislimi told Rtv21.

Statements of government representatives that have not accepted association are not distracting opposition representatives. Commission for European Integration Chairman Rzazarta Krasniqi says the government has accepted association with the Ohrid Agreement and Brussels within the normalisation of relations with Serbia.

The government has to go out and market people that Albin Kurti and VV have accepted association with executive competencies. They are wanting and forming a small Serbia within the state of Kosovo. This should be known to all Kosovo citizens that they have accepted the association, that when they have the implementation, we expect in the coming days”, Krasniqi said.

The lack of concrete results in the dialogue process with Serbia, according to Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi, poses no problem for Kosovo in integration processes, even though the European Union says otherwise.

“Dialogue is part of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, and it is dated by the preliminary governments at the moment when agreed to a Stabilisation and Association agreement, therefore it will be part of our assessment, but it is not something that blocks integration”, Bislim said.

Commission for European Integration Chairman Rhezarta Krasniqi insists integration processes are related to the results of the dialogue. It blames the government for that.

“This governance has linked dialogue with Kosovo's integration processes because with membership in the Council of Europe, the heads of state have pledged with processes that are related to dialogue, because Kosovo has failed in the Council”, Krasniqi said.

The government says they are working on the EU agenda for European integrations related to the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, in which it is expected to benefit EU funds.