Life in Kosovo discusses about emergency situations
Tonight, Life in Kosovo will broadcast a debate on the emergency situations in our country.
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Every Thursday starting from 20:30, Radio Television Kosovo, RTK, broadcasts the TV debate show "Life in Kosovo", a joint production of BIRN and RTK.
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Life in Kosovo discusses the new NGO law and the performance of Kosovo’s Assembly
15 July 2010 Life in Kosovo broadcast a debate on the new law covering non- governmental organisations (NGOs). A second debate, about the performance of Kosovo’s Assembly (parliament) followed.
Among the questions discussed were: Why is the law on the NGOs being amended? Was there pressure in favour of these amendments? Who desires the transformation of micro-finance NGOs? How will this transformation reflect on donors? Are the changes to the law in accordance with European principles on civil society?
To discuss these and related questions, host Muhamet Hajrullahu was joined in the studio by the following guest:
Besim Kajtazi – Director of the legal department, Office of the Prime Minister
Sylejman Gashi – Director of the legal department, Ministry of Public Administration
Shkëndije Himaj – Chief official for financial supervision, Kosovo Central Bank
Taulant Hoxha – Civil society development programme coordinator at Kosovar Civil
Society Foundation (KCSF)
Ferdinand Nikolla – Executive director, Forum for Civil Initiative (FCI)
The debate began with the question of why the law on NGOs has changed, given that it has not yet been a year since it was originally ratified by Kosovo’s Assembly.
Mr. Gashi said that the existing law had been based on “non-existent clauses and paragraphs,” while Mr. Hoxha claimed that there had been “technical mistakes” in the law.
Mr. Hoxha went on to say that he does not believe such mistakes to be the reason for the changes the law is undergoing, as these were much more substantial.
In response, Mr. Gashi said that the decision of amendments requires unanimous support from its working group.
Mr. Kajtazi assured the other panellists that the amendments will benefit not harm NGOs, and will not extend government control of the sector. “I guarantee this, and there are very clear instructions for the amendments,” he said.
Mr. Nikolla said that individuals working in NGOs and civil society organisations have equal authority with the government officials in the working group.
However, some changes noticed in a draft that was sent to the group had not actually been discussed by the group. Such changes included “the adding of the new statements… for example, on the transformation and abolishment of NGOs.”
Mr. Gashi said that the final draft has not yet been issued, and that the reason the aforementioned draft had been sent for review was to check on whether everyone could agree.
He also said that only one of the law’s clauses – rather than the whole law – is being amended.
Asked why micro-finance NGOs are requesting transformation and Kosovo’s Central Bank is supporting them in this, Mrs. Himaj said: ”the Central Bank comes in at one of the final steps of the process, as there is a legal regulation that allows micro-financial institutions to exercise their activities as registered micro-financial organisations, which hold the status of public beneficiaries.
If they reach a level of development at which their financial stability is suitable, then they are allowed to transform into another form, in which they can accept deposits to secure funds.”
Mrs. Himaj, talking about the law on the freedom of association, and asked to mention three examples in the region or Europe where the transformation of the micro-financial NGO-s has happened (having mentioned before that the transformation is good for Kosovo, as the alternative, that is the abolishment of the institutions results in loss of jobs and other bad consequences), she said that Kosovo cannot be compared to the rest of Europe, as the former has gone through a war, and in developing countries, micro-financial institutions play a specific and vital role.
Mr. Kajtazi, asked about the nature of the discussions, said that the working groups are ‘technical groups’ made up of experts. Regarding the question of whether this law is a government priority, he said that “if this law had not been a priority, it would mean that NGOs are not a priority of the Assembly”.
Mr. Gashi denied that requests from civil society organisations have been ignored. He said that such groups need to be in agreement for modifications to be agreed.
Mr. Nikolla said that civil society organisations should not feel ignored because they are equal actors in the relevant working group. Returning to his earlier point, however, he mentioned the amendment of a sentence in a clause that had not been discussed within the group, in which the word “transformation” is followed by references to “abolishment” of NGOs.
”This addition makes us feel alarmed and scared that maybe formal [working group] decisions will be threatened or lost by informal work,” Mr. Hoxha said.
Mr. Kajtazi, however, reminded him that the Office of the Prime Minster has guaranteed that it will not allow the law to pass if it is not in accordance with the central principles of organisations.
Mr. Gashi then said that he had been aware of the added words in the clause, even htough he had not been present at the meeting when the proposed draft was discussed.
Asked specifically who had changed this point, he said that “the deputy chair of the group and the participants of one meeting came to me and said that the working group had agreed to adding some words to clause 20.’”
Mr. Hoxha challenged Mr. Gashi’s story, saying that there had been an agreement not to discuss this particular amendment in the working group and that “someone had come from outside and said that we will work on the clause that we had specifically agreed on at the beginning not to work on”.
Mrs. Himaj said that the Central Bank is a neutral actor in this process as Kosovo’s law on NGOs is not a matter that the Central Bank should be involved with.
Mr. Nikolla said that the law on associations forbids the transformation of the wealth of any NGO, be it micro-financial or not. Instead, they are required to transfer their capital to another organisation. “The law is very strict on this issue,” he said.
At the end the debate, guests were asked whether the current draft, which contains the controversial amendment, will be sent to the Assembly before the summer recess.
Mr.Gashi answered that the working group has still not finished its job, and therefore there will be more meetings until an agreement is reached.
Mr. Kastrati said that the instructions for the working group discussing the draft are very clear: the proposal must be made through agreement with the requests of representatives of NGOs.
He concluded by saying that the problems that have appeared in this case are not specific to the NGO law, and that such controversies would likely arise with the amendment of other laws.
Debate about Kosovo’s Assembly
In the second debate, host Muhamet Hajrullahu asked deputies as well as representatives from civil society whether they thought the Assembly of Kosovo has fulfilled the promises it made at the beginning of the year.
The studio guests were:
Bahri Hyseni - Deputy from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and chairman of the
Legislation Commission
Armend Zemaj - Deputy from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK)
Gjylnaze Syla - Deputy from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK)
Driton Selmanaj - Democratic Institute of Kosovo
Asked whether the Assembly has met the targets it set for itself in January after six months, Mr. Hyseni said that it is normal for a parliament that has proposed 120 laws not to be able to completely fulfil its legislative agenda. He said that around 30 laws have been approved, and another 30 are undergoing the approval process.
Mrs. Syla on the other hand said that, if the Assembly does not reach a goal it has set for itself, “that is called failure”.
Mr. Zemaj said that deputies must admit that they cannot escape from their responsibilities. He added: “the job of the government is not necessarily related to the job of the Assembly.
Deputies are independent in fulfilling their duties and their obligations to citizens.” Mr. Selmanaj talked about the failure to implement the proposed laws.
He mentioned that “in the first six months of this year, 56 proposed laws were supposed to been through the Assembly, but only 24 have done so.
From those, 22 have gone through the first reading, whereas only two have passed through two readings. This means that only 40 percent of the plan has been executed.”
Mr. Hyseni responded by saying that the legislative agenda will be passed. The Assembly takes the legislative agenda formulated by the government, rather than one it makes for it itself, with the Assembly formulating around ten percent of proposed laws.
Mrs. Syla replied that while it is true that most of the agenda is written by the government, “the Assembly should come forth with legislative initiatives; the Assembly of Kosovo has come forth with only two so far”.
Mr. Hyseni read out those proposed laws classified as a priority and argued that those have been passed, but Mrs. Sylaj went read out a list of others that have been classified as such but have not passed through the Assembly.
Mr. Selmanaj said that “last year, only 29 percent of the laws that were supposed to be ratified were actually ratified, and 71 percent were not even discussed.”
Instead of the Assembly decreasing the number of laws in the pipeline, it has only increased it, which is “a clear sign of the lack of planning,” Mr. Selmanaj claimed.
Mr. Zemaj said that there were disagreements over the legal regulation of deputies’ responsibilities: “All deputies have agreed that the law of privileges should be changed and they had all come to an agreement to get rid of those privileges, besides the mandate.”
Mr. Selmanaj talked about the inefficiency of Assembly sessions, mentioning the long plenary sessions on particular issues that have resulted in no specific stance being taken by the Assembly.
He also mentioned sessions that resulted in a particular position being taken by the Assembly, which sent requests on to the government that deputies knew could not be implemented for some reason.
He gave the example of a recent decision by deputies to forbid the Serbian elections in Mitrovica, sending this decision to the government on a Thursday, despite knowing that it would be impossible to prevent the
elections that were to be held that Sunday.
Mr. Zemaj talked about the negative labelling of deputies by Kosovo’s citizens, claiming that such labels are often not fair, as there are huge differences between deputies. “Some do their jobs well, while others some do not at all,” he said. When asked what to do with the deputies that never talk, Mr. Zemaj said: “It is the people themselves that are giving them their vote.”
Mrs. Syla said that evaluation and account-giving should be motivation for deputies to perform their roles well, because it reminds one that they have not completed their work.
Other reports
During the debate, three reports were broadcast about the work of the Assembly.
Journalist Alban Selimi asked deputies and monitors at the Assembly whether they have fulfilled their obligations and how effective they think their institution has been.
In another report, journalist Alban Selimi asked citizens for their perceptions on the performance of deputies.
BIRN also broadcast a report from journalist Edona Musa about evaluations by the Kosova Democratic Institute of deputies’ activities between July and December 2009.
Concluding the show, journalist Petrit Kryeziu told the story of Yllka kindergarten in Prizren, which does not have a clear status and a debt of 80,000 euros.
Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
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