Haxhiu: Assembly session to be held Monday, declaration on The Hague on the agenda

Kosovo Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu announced that the Assembly Presidency has decided the next session will be held Monday at 11:00, when a declaration on the Hague process and the Specialist Court’s ruling is also expected to be reviewed.

Haxhiu said today’s Presidency meeting was the first of this legislature and that it had taken place after a long discussion.

“After a long and not easy meeting today we held the first meeting of this legislature. I have said before why we had not called a Presidency meeting was that the Assembly and the Government were contested by PDK at the Constitutional Court. The Assembly Presidency decided today that the Assembly session will be held Monday at 11:00. The approval of a declaration related to the Hague process, namely the unjust ruling of the Specialist Court. To be a stance of the Assembly and for the Assembly to have a stance on this ruling through a declaration.”

The Assembly Speaker also reacted to criticism that she had not called an extraordinary session after the Hague ruling.

She clarified that the Assembly Speaker has no competence to call an extraordinary session herself, stressing that such a request must be made by at least 40 MPs.

“Criticism has been made in my name about why I did not call an extraordinary session after the Hague ruling. There was no request processed in the Kosovo Assembly… The Assembly Speaker has no right to call an external session. Those who have the right to do this are 40 signatory MPs and the moment such a request comes to me, even today, I would approve it…”

Speaking about the bill initiated by the PDK Parliamentary Group, Haxhiu said she does not want to prejudge the initiative, but asked that every institutional action after the Hague ruling be well thought out and consulted.

“Now let me clarify something I consider important and here without prejudice to the bill processed by the PDK parliamentary group. I think it is very important that every action of institutions and parliamentary groups after the Hague ruling. I refuse to support any initiative whose purpose is only to make it look like we are doing something. I do not want to prejudge the initiative of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, but I invite all parliamentary groups not to make proposals just to appear that we are doing something and that carry no weight. So, at this stage, after the unjust first-instance ruling, I think each of us must be careful in terms of undertaking the right actions in time, but also right decisions,” she said.

She asked that, before undertaking legal initiatives, field experts and the defense teams of the former KLA leaders be consulted, saying that, according to the information she has, the defense teams were not consulted about this bill.

“Regarding the bill, we tried to ask Tahiri who he consulted with, because I think it would have been much fairer that whatever we did, we would come together in the Legislation Committee and draft an amendment to the law. Or that at least field experts and defense teams be consulted beforehand. I don’t think we do well if we don’t consult the defense teams for any legal initiative. According to information, the defense teams were not consulted and that is a mistake.”

Haxhiu announced that the bill is already in parliamentary procedure and that, after its acceptance, it was sent for opinion to the Government of Kosovo.

“However, we already have the law in parliamentary procedures. So, the moment I accepted the bill, we processed it for opinion to the Government. You know that under the law on legislative initiatives, any initiative processed in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo requires a prior opinion from the Government. By law, the Government has the right to 30 days to review it. If it does not use those 30 days, the law proceeds to session without the Government’s opinion. We have been in communication, I personally have been in communication with Prime Minister Kurti, I pledged again today at the Presidency meeting that we will address it again, that this bill be treated by the Government with priority, especially now that our days are numbered if we talk about the Constitutional Court ruling,” Haxhiu said.

Source: Telegrafi