Kosovo Democratic Institute has evaluated the work of the Assembly for 2015, a year characterized by extreme polarization between the ruling parties and opposition, resulting in greater political crisis in the country. Rejection of the agreement on establishment of the Association / Association of municipalities with Serbian majority and Demarcation Agreement with Montenegro, were the highlights of this crash.
Spring Session
The first quarter of the work of the Assembly is accompanied by extremely low dynamic work, with only a draft law passed, the state budget draft law. In the first quarter the Government had not brought the Legislative Assembly agenda in the Assembly. Independent Agencies and Public Enterprises have been completed with the members of their governing bodies. For close to three months (from 3 February to 27 April), all proceedings of Parliament boycotted by members of the “Serbian List” as a sign of protest against the Government's dismissal of their chief Alexander Jablanovic from the position of Minister for Communities and Returns. In the second part of the spring session, the Assembly has had a greater intensity of work after that had been adopted on second reading 16 draft. The urgency of the Kosovo Government to proceed with the draft expedited procedure has been frequent in the Assembly. Except in the case of adoption of the budget, accelerated procedures are followed by the reopening of the budget and two other laws arising from the establishment of the Special Court. Outside parliamentary practices have returned to the Assembly for approval amendments to enable the establishment of this court, after Parliament voted against them again.
Autumn session
The Lack of transparency of the Government to the Assembly in connection with the process of dialogue with Serbia, and the signing of the demarcation with Montenegro, resulted in the blocking of parliamentary life throughout the autumn session (September 22 to December 17). Opposition deputies have prevented the holding of plenary sessions with the use of tear gas in the building of the Parliament. In contrast, solemn sessions and she ratification of the MSA does not slip. Meetings of parliamentary committees were boycotted by the opposition members. This period has been among the worst of parliamentarism in Kosovo and seriously challenged institutional functionality. The police presence in the Assembly and the plenary hall, was outside the parameters until now.
The increased number of controls in the Assembly entrance could not prevent the tear gas introduction inside the building, which implies the failing of security institutions.
Deri në përmbyllje të punës së Kuvendit, bilanci i arrestimeve, shoqërimeve në polici, paraburgimeve dhe masës së arrestit shtëpiak kishte arritur në 13 deputetë opozitar, masa këto të ndryshme për vepra të njëjta. Improvising a hall in the above floor of the Assembly building was used as a temporary solution to continue the plenary sessions. This hall was used only after the impositon of the mass of collective departure of the opposition deputies, and physical obstruction of them entering the hall. For as much as the use of tear gas from unauthorized persons is considered criminal act, and deputies according to the judgement of the Constitutional Cort hold only functional imunity, the prosecutor has ordered the deputies’ arrest. Until the end of the session, the balance of arrests, requests to attend the police stations, detentions and the measure of house arrest reached the number of 13 opposition deputies, different measures for same acts.
There have been incidents this year as well. The security of the Assembly had obstructed the opposition leaders to enter the Assembly spaces to deliver a press conference, an act in complete contradiction with the Law on Rights and Responsibilities of the Deputy. On the other side, the opposition disrespected the Rule of Media and Public Access in the Work of Kosovo Assembly, by avoiding the Media and Public Relation Office of the Assembly.
The Assembly Leadership moved tactically to continue with the plenary sessions. The last session was followed with serious violations, which includes stopping opposition deputies to participate in the second part of the plenary session, although the departure measure is in power only during the actual day. Fulfilling the bord of the Kosovan Agency of Privatisation with eight members is against the law, because it was based in a law not entered into force yet.
Fulfillment of the legislative agenda
The Assembly during 2015 approved 47 draft laws (34%), out of 138 foreseen for this year. Among approved laws 13 were lawf for completion brought from the Government. In the parliamentary committees procedures are 24 draft laws (17%), and 67 other draft laws (49%) were not initiated at all. Among approved draft laws the focus is in financial sector, then law and security, which shows that these are the three sections with priority in central institutions. Ecxept the low fulfillment of legislative agenda, approved draft laws during fall session were made without parliamentary debate, some of them with accelerated procedures and without opposition participation.
Parliamentary oversight
Parliament has had poor performance in the exercise of its supervisory role. Only three Interpellations are held (two for Prime Minister Mustafa and one Deputy Minister Thaçi). Parliamentary questions as another instrument of the executive oversight have been scarce. In total 216 questions were submitted out, of which only 68% were answered by the cabinet. VV from political entities submitted the most questions (78), followed by PDK (52), AAK (44) LDK (24) and NPK (13). Most of parliamentary questions have been submitted from the health sector (43), education (25) and social issues (21), the sectors in which there has been no parliamentary question are media, public services and forestry. For the year of 2015, Assembly has planed monitoring of implementation of 29 laws. Low point of Assembly on it’s monitoring duty is the monitoring of 34 Independent agencies, these institutions are established by the Assembly, to which they should be accountable. At the beginning of the year there was negligence on the part of the Government to propose board members leading to these agencies, while in the second half of the year it continued with politicization of the boards of independent agencies.
Sessions and Parliamentary Committees
For a year, the Assembly has managed to retain a total of 30 plenary sessions (20 are continued to the next day), 4 solemn session, 5 extraordinary sessions and 5 special sessions. Work in parliamentary committees, as subsidiary bodies of the Assembly, it is very important to the overall effectiveness of the institution. During 2015, fourteen (14) committees of Parliament have held a total of 406 regular meetings and 35 public hearings, 8 of which organized together with external partners. In the autumn session, after the boycott of parliamentary committees by representatives of the opposition, the meetings were held only in the presence of deputies of the ruling parties. The lack of opposition led to superficial reporting of ministers in committee and their work reports as well as financial ones have passed without challenge.
Loyalty to parliamentary group
This year, KDI has launched digital platform Vota Ime, which provides numerous information from monitoring of the Assembly. The innovation of this platform was the measurement of the loyalty of MPs to their parliamentary groups, made by comparing the MPs vote with statements of their parliamentary groups. From this assessment, it appears that 68 of the 116 parliamentary deputies from parliamentaty groups (not including independent members) are over 95% loyal to their parliamentary group. With this we can come to the conclusion that members are not independent carrying out their mandate, and that the parliamentary groups have a strong impact on the decisions they make in the Assembly.
Parliamentary research
During 2015, KDI has provided assistance to the parliamentary committees in the legislative process. There were contracted 20 parliamentary committees researches, 17 of which were submitted to the Parliament and 3 of them are in the process of drafting. Committees which have mostly sought parliamentary research are: Committee on Legislation, Mandates, Rules of Procedure and Supervision of the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Committee on Education, Science, Technology, Culture, Youth and Sports