Svečla: In 2012, today's opposition made citizenship for Serbs part of the Constitution

Following the accusations that followed since the Law on Citizenship came into force, which recognizes the right to acquire citizenship for citizens of the former Yugoslavia who had permanent resident status in Kosovo on January 1, 1998, as well as for their direct descendants, the acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla, has reacted. He stressed that with the amendments of 2012, the current opposition, then in power, made this provision a permanent part of the constitutional order.

Acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla, has defended the provision of the Law on Citizenship that has sparked reactions, which recognizes the right to acquire citizenship for citizens of the former Yugoslavia who on January 1, 1998 had the status of permanent resident in Kosovo, as well as for their direct descendants.

He said that the provision stems from the Ahtisaari Package and has been part of the constitutional order since 2008, when Kosovo declared independence.

"This article is part of the fundamental constitutional provisions of the Republic of Kosovo, namely Article 155, which derives from the Ahtisaari Package. This right has not been created or recognized by this government and has not been introduced for the first time with the new law, as opposition exponents are proclaiming," he said on Tuesday at a press conference.

Sweden has accused past governments of making this provision a permanent part of the constitutional order.

"While in 2012, instead of this provision being removed from the Constitution and having the same fate as other transitional provisions, the current opposition, which was in power at the time, through constitutional amendments decided to transfer this provision to the fundamental provisions of the Constitution in order to make it a permanent part of the constitutional order of the Republic of Kosovo. So essentially, what the opposition is criticizing today has its source precisely here," Sveçla declared.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Qendrim Bytyqi, said that Article 31 of the Law on Citizenship is fully harmonized with the Constitution and does not imply automatic acquisition of citizenship, but only recognition of the right to acquire it according to the procedures and criteria established by law.

According to him, the main difference lies in the legal formulation, as the laws of 2008 and 2013 used the phrase "are considered citizens of the Republic of Kosovo", while the current law speaks of the recognition of the right to citizenship, in accordance with constitutional provisions.

The Citizenship Law entered into force on May 22. Days earlier, Sweden announced that hundreds of people had applied to gain citizenship under this law.

Sveclë's reaction came after opposition MPs accused the incumbent government of enabling numerous Serbs who no longer live in Kosovo to obtain Kosovo citizenship, including those who had moved to Kosovo from other countries during the 90s.