Haris Ademi, a journalist at ATV, said that the engagement of MP's assistants has not had any results nor activity from them, as most of them have engaged for party motives, serving the subject and not the MP.
"It is thought that the engagement of assistants will increase the productivity, the activity of the deputies, I think such a thing has had a 0 result, despite the fact that a minimum of 550 euros is spent per year on salaries for those assistants who do not even have an office to work in. stay, most of them do not stay in the place of work in the Assembly, some of them are engaged in party motives that serve a subject and not a deputy. While, no greater activity of deputies has been observed either in parliamentary questions or in activism within the legislature", said Ademi in "Tempus".
According to him, this is the main reason why these assistants were engaged, to serve the deputies, but such a thing says that it was not noticed.
The journalist said that the deputies themselves have asked for offices for them, for themselves, but apart from the members of the commissions, no one said that they do not have a space where they can exercise their activity. He says that MPs should hold meetings with citizens in restaurants, and that according to him, it is not a very good sight when a MP carries out his entire agenda outside the parliament.
Ademi said that there is a need for a brand new facility, since the current infrastructure cannot meet all the conditions, neither for the media nor for the deputies themselves.
"I am critical of the Speaker of the Assembly, because he does not appear frequently in front of journalists, he is not always in front of the media when the meetings of the Presidency are over, usually some of the leaders of the parliamentary groups appear, not all of them. Otherwise, even the place where the conferences are held is not dignified for the media and journalists, I consider that the Speaker of the Assembly should be more active and perhaps represent the political position of the Assembly while maintaining the balance", said Ademi. / Oath of Justice
Haxholli: 12 weeks of the session without sessions, unreasonable absence of deputies
Violeta Haxholli, project manager and senior researcher at the Democratic Institute of Kosovo (KDI), said that during this spring session, there were no sessions in the Assembly for four consecutive weeks, which according to her are a total of 12 weeks of the session in which no sessions were held at all.
Invited to "Tempus", Haxholli also mentioned the lack of deputies in the Assembly without reason, as well as the lack of transparency from the commissions.
According to her, the situation in the Assembly is getting worse since in this session it has been seen that the meetings of the presidency have failed many times to call the sessions, while according to her the President of the Assembly unilaterally based on his powers has done call for hearings.
"He has somehow normalized this practice since the idea that the chairman calls the sessions and not the chairmanship should have been a rare practice and this became a frequent practice during this session", said Haxholli.
So, she said that when the meeting of the presidency failed because it did not have a quorum, then the president of the Assembly called the sessions, and according to her, unfortunately, these sessions were also rare.
"During the spring session, 12 times in 12 weeks there were no sessions, there were cases when there were no sessions for four weeks in a row, so in total 12 weeks of the session no sessions were held at all, while the legislative material was therefore waiting to was dealt with here, including very important reports of independent institutions, audit reports which we see in the session that are carried over, there is a report that is from 2022 and it has been carried over, meaning in 2024", said Haxholli.
Regarding the issue of transparency, Haxholli stated that for three years the public has not been aware of how the deputies voted for certain laws. The researcher also mentioned the absence of deputies, where according to her, neither the deputies nor the government cabinet respect the institution of the Assembly.
"Initially, deputies who are absent without reason, even though the law on the responsibility of deputies that is in force and the regulations provide that when a deputy is absent from sessions, he must give the reasons to the chairman and the chairmanship, in this case we have total unreasonable absences which are not justified anywhere and this has constantly caused a lack of quorum", said Haxholli.
And that such a thing, according to her, constantly causes a delay in the treatment of points or a large accumulation of unexamined points.
"Almost every session has 50 points, which means that they are constantly carried over from session to session and remain unaddressed, and now we find ourselves at the end of the spring session, which means that with very few laws approved, no law of the legislative plan of 2024 and imagine now the situation if the Assembly is dissolved before the autumn session begins. In such a scenario, then we have a complete lost year in terms of the 2024 legislative plan, so it is a complete lost legislative year", she said.
Regarding transparency, Haxholli also mentioned the work of the Assembly's committees, according to which the committees are obliged to publish the minutes and transcripts of the meetings, but they do so later.
"Last session, about 60% of the minutes were public, which means 40% are not public at all", added Haxholli.
Even the work of investigative commissions, Haxholli said, goes without being recorded by the Assembly in relation to the public. / Oath of Justice
Jakaj: In 2002, there was electronic voting in the Assembly, not now
Naim Jakaj, senior researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), said that in 2002 there was electronic voting in the Assembly, but now it is not. He said that the Government does not accept civil society's comments on draft laws.
This legislature, he said, if we look at it in terms of electronic voting, it is much worse than the legislature before independence in 2002, since electronic voting was in that year.
"We initially consider that they are legal procedural problems, but then the second year, the third year, the fourth year, then the part when you have the digitization of the hall, it was done at a time when the work is intensified in the Assembly, the months of April, May, June - these are the months when the work is intensified, at that time a decision is made that I go on vacation for two weeks and days, then two weeks and days pass, it is seen that the work is not being done, it is said that two months and days are needed due to the procurement procedures, meanwhile, the session continues plenary there in an improvised hall, where I do not know and the decision-making is doubtful due to the counting and it is not known how many votes there are in a plenary hall", said Jakaj in "Tempus".
As for transparency, he said that this legislature is weaker than the legislature in 2002 and weaker in relation to parliamentary committee meetings than in 2015, 2016 or 2017. then he said that there was a broadcast of all the meetings of the parliamentary commissions, today it is not such a thing.
"As for the comments of the civil society, respectively of the IKD, here I have 10 decisions of the laws and decisions of the Assembly of Kosovo, where the Constitutional Court has overturned some partially and some completely, for the Law on the Bureau, the judgment was published three hours ago of the Constitutional Court in 183 pages, everything that IKD said in 2021, in our analysis when we published it for the Draft Law on the Bureau, has been confirmed", said Jakaj. / Oath of Justice
Ademi: The disapproval of many laws was due to the impotence of the largest parliamentary group
Haris Ademi, journalist at ATV, said that the impotence of the largest parliamentary group, i.e. that of the Vetëvendosje Movement, has caused many laws not to be approved.
In the show "Tempus" on KTV, Ademi said that the Assembly's vacations and the renovations of the hall have made the activity of deputies in plenary sessions even more impossible.
"We published a report today in the central news with the title 'deputies inactive in July and vacation in August', that is, the last month especially has been the most inactive month, because only two sessions were held in one day, one was a memorial for Srebrenica, the other was a failed session due to the quorum. The opposition boycotted that session and thus they have functioned in an alternative hall. I think it was wrong to start the renovation of the plenary session hall when the Assembly is active, without going on summer vacation. This has probably made the usual activity of deputies in plenary sessions impossible", said Ademi.
According to him, there are other phenomena that have followed this session.
Journalist Ademi said that perhaps the discussion about possible extraordinary elections "has made the MPs more passive in their work".
"The elections were not achieved, all that the Assembly has benefited from this discussion is the approval of the international agreements for which the Democratic Party of Kosovo issued, as a solution to all those tens of millions of euros in a decision of the candidate for Prime Minister Bedri Hamza. Otherwise, the impotence of the largest parliamentary group that has existed in the history of parliamentarianism, the Vetëvendosje Movement, has been noticed, especially some vital draft laws such as the Civil Code, which is discussed and there is no harmony within the parliamentary group", said Ademi. / Oath of Justice
Jakaj: Assembly without planning and with a deep lack of transparency even in this spring session
Naim Jakaj, senior researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), said that the Assembly of Kosovo this spring session was also characterized by a deep lack of transparency and without any work planning.
According to Jakaj, the phenomenon that has characterized the Assembly during the years 2022-2023, has also characterized it in this spring session.
"There was no work planning, let's take it with the regulation of the Assembly, it is foreseen that a plan should be made and the plenary session approves it. There is no, there is no initiative, despite the fact that in 2022 there was an initiative from the chairman and the presidency to to plan the works and to approve this planning in the plenary session, meanwhile he fails to do it", said Jakaj on the show "Tempus" on KTV.
On the other hand, Jakaj said that this session was also characterized by a deep lack of transparency, according to him the Assembly of Kosovo continues not to publish the votes of the members of the Assembly.
"Then the next thing was regarding law-making, the process was characterized not only by lack of efficiency but also by unconstitutionality, so we have the Law on the Independent Media Commission, then we had the Constitutional Court's decision on the Law on the Bureau, which law was already overturned and some other laws", he said further.
The IKD researcher also emphasized that the Assembly was accompanied by unparliamentary language, misogynistic and sexist language that was carried over from the plenary session to the meetings of the Parliamentary Commissions.
"So unconstitutionality, lack of transparency, illegality and lack of efficiency have been the issues that have followed or the bad phenomena that have followed the Assembly during this session", said Jakaj. / Oath of Justice
Gajtani: There are parliamentary questions that have been waiting for a year without answers from the government
Flamur Gajtani, a journalist at "Klan Kosova", said that there are parliamentary questions that are waiting for a year to be answered by the position.
"For a long time, there was no response from the entire government cabinet led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, since they had made this decision after the opposition parties did not vote on international agreements, as a revolt they had decided not to answer any questions in it which the opposition is interested in. We have parliamentary questions that have been waiting for more than a year", said Gajtani.
Regarding the renovation of the Assembly hall, he said that it was precisely the time when there was talk of a motion against the Government.
"We know that even during this time there were at least two sessions that were held, which were solemn, namely the address of Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, and the solemn session for the liberation of the country, which was precisely in the plenary hall, at the time when it was said that it was under renovation, and we have seen that at the time when these sessions were held, there was nothing that was being renovated", said Gajtani in "Tempus".
According to him, in general, the lack of deputies and the minimal approval of laws characterized this spring session of the Assembly.
"In many cases we have seen that even the government itself has had problems securing the simple majority", said Gajtani.
Journalist Gajtani said that the last two sessions were held in alternative halls and there was trouble in securing the quorum since the position has left the hall twice in a row for the same reasons.
Haxholli: This year's spring session of the Assembly, weaker than last year's
Violeta Haxholli, project manager and senior researcher at the Democratic Institute of Kosovo (KDI), said that this year's spring session of the Assembly is weaker than last year's.
Invited to the show "Tempus" on KTV, Haxholli said that this session on July 31 is considered finished.
"If we compare it with last year's spring session, we can freely say that it is a weaker session compared to last year's, both in terms of the adoption of laws and the way different topics were handled, then it is the weakest session", said Haxholli.
As for the legislative agenda, he said that 102 draft laws were expected to be approved this year and that so far in this spring session none of the draft laws have been approved, with the exception of some international agreements.
"In total, 36 have been approved, including 20 international agreements, but all of them are part of past legislative agendas, which means that they were inherited earlier, but there are none this year. This immediately shows that there were no good results this session", said Haxholli.
The KDI researcher said there is a decline in the results of the Assembly this year, emphasizing that there was more absence and less supervision in this session.
The same added that there was indifference of the deputies to the topic of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. / Oath of Justice
