Kosovo Law Institute: Blocked Parliament Directly Affects Citizens' Lives, Implementation of Laws

Kosovo Parliament (BetaPhoto/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)

Senior researcher at the Kosovo Law Institute Gzim Shala has pointed out the serious consequences caused by failure to constitute the Kosovo Assembly, stressing that the institutional blockade has left 17 agencies and independent institutions with incomplete compositions, while four of them are currently not functioning due to a lack of quorum. 

He told the EkonomiaOnline agency that the lack of a functional Assembly was directly impacting citizens' lives and the implementation of laws, and was causing a delay in important reforms that were waiting for the support of international partners.

"In real terms, non-functioning of the Assembly does not produce consequences only within itself. It has broad consequences in many areas," he said, adding that there was a whole host of other specific consequences in various independent institutions, in various collegiate bodies, which were in danger of becoming non-functional, and some were already not functioning due to a lack of quorum stemming from the Assembly's inability to pick new members.

In his words, this situation also directly leads to the inadequate implementation of laws, but also to jeopardizing the rights of citizens who receive various services from those institutions.

"There are also a number of other issues and reforms that are waiting for laws to be adopted by the Assembly, but that cannot happen. It should also be stressed that hundreds of millions of dollars are in question from international partners, the EU and others, who are waiting for the adoption of laws in the Kosovo Assembly, and so this situation in that way directly affects citizens' lives," said Shala.