Today, on February 18, 2025, AVONET held a press conference regarding the cancellation of the consent of the MDP, Ferizaj, where it stated the following:
First of all, AVONET thanks you for your positive response to participate in this press conference.
This press conference is related to the annulment of the consent of the Municipal Development Plan 2017-2025, by the decisions of the courts of Kosovo. The consent of the MDP was issued by the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, after the illegal development of the administrative procedure by the Municipality of Ferizaj in relation to the approval of this strategic spatial document. The Municipality of Ferizaj, specifically the Directorate of Environment and Urbanism, led at that time by Mr. Faik Grainca, on 31.08.2017 submitted all the material of the MDP, for the granting of consent to the MMPHI, as provided for in the norm of Article 11, paragraph 1.9 of the positive Law on Spatial Planning, in order to give this document legal force. Surprisingly, with unprecedented haste on the same date, namely on 31.08.2017, the Department of Spatial Planning, Construction and Housing, at the MMPHI, without even analyzing the material sent by the Municipality of Ferizaj, issued the decision to grant consent for the approval of the Municipal Development Plan 2017-2025 of the Municipality of Ferizaj, even though there were hundreds and hundreds of pages of the MDP and other accompanying documents under review. So, it is surprising how hundreds of pages were reviewed within a day by the MMPHI!
The court decisions regarding this matter found that the approval by the Municipality of Ferizaj and the granting of consent to the MDP by the MMPHI, was carried out in illegal procedures, which were also accompanied by falsification of official documents and abuse of official duty by the public officials who carried out these processes.
These legal violations found by the courts that dealt with this issue are not legal violations of a mere administrative nature, but they are legal violations accompanied by falsification and submission of documents with false content to the MMPHI, by officials of the Municipality of Ferizaj, violations which are violations of a legal-criminal nature, sanctionable by the material criminal provisions of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo.
The consequences of these legal violations are extremely large, due to the fact that since 2017 until now, the Municipality of Ferizaj has issued hundreds and hundreds of construction permits for high-rise buildings, with an illegal legal basis, due to the fact that when approving the conditions and construction permits, the approval of which precedes the approval of the construction permit decision, the Municipality of Ferizaj has relied on and based on the MDP.
Whereas, according to Article 15 of the positive Law on Spatial Planning, the Notification dated 06.04.2018, issued by the former director of DUM-Ferizaj, Mr. Lulzim Aliu, it is clearly stated that the MDP is a strategic development document or plan, where based on it, urban construction conditions cannot be given, consequently, a decision cannot be issued for the approval of a construction permit. Construction conditions can be approved based only on detailed urban plans, that is, only based on Urban Regulatory Plans or Zonal Maps.
Throughout this time, since 2017, the Municipality of Ferizaj has declared that the Urban Regulatory Plans have been repealed, consequently it cannot issue construction permits based on them, but on the other hand, from the interpretation of the MMPHI dated 08.06.2018, which is based on the norm of Article 26, paragraph 7 of the Law on Spatial Planning, it is stated that Existing spatial planning documents (PRRUs), which are approved, remain in force until they are harmonized with the provisions of the positive law on spatial planning.. Also, court decisions, specifically decision A.nr.1497/2020, establish that the PRRUs have been and remain in force even at these moments when we are making this statement, and that the approval of the MDP in 2017 did not repeal the urban regulatory plans – PRRU, due to the fact that the MDP and the RUDPs do not belong to the same legal category, therefore they are different legal categories, and that the approval of the MDP has not abrogated or derogated the Urban Regulatory Plans. In this regard, AVONET considers that all The construction conditions for high-rise construction based on the MDP and the construction permits issued from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 are illegal.
AVONET, from its sources, also possesses several official internal communications between officials of the Municipality of Ferizaj, which confirm that for issuing construction conditions, the Municipality of Ferizaj must rely on the PRRU. That is, it must implement the detailed planning documents that have been and are in force. Also, after the approval of the MDP, the Municipality of Ferizaj, although it was legally obliged to within 9 months to approve detailed urban plans - zonal maps, she deliberately did not approve them for 7 years, just to issue these hundreds of construction permits illegally.
Throughout this time, since 2017 onwards, the Municipality of Ferizaj has been informed of these legal violations, but this has not impressed the officials of the Municipality of Ferizaj, who have directly and knowingly, in their capacity as official persons, continued to violate the legal provisions regarding the issuance of hundreds of construction permits. In this regard, all decisions on high-level construction permits issued by the Municipality of Ferizaj since 2017, based on the MDP and not on planning documents that have been approved and in force, including the PRRUs, are unlawful.
All these constructions carried out in our city, which are a derivative of illegal actions and decisions of officials of the Municipality of Ferizaj, have caused urban chaos in this city, and if a simple analysis is done, it can be said that their value varies in hundreds of millions of euros, and here there are also suspicions of millions of euros in benefits for investors and responsible officials of the Municipality of Ferizaj, without excluding the responsible officials of the MMPHI.
The damages caused by these officials are irreparable and are making the lives of the citizens of this city extremely difficult, so these damages are ultimately harming the citizens themselves. Therefore, taking into account the fact that the current criminal procedural provisions in force provide that the statute of limitations (STALEMATE) relative for criminal actions, in the sense of criminal offenses against official position or authority is 10 years, while the absolute one is 20 years, all citizens who think and suspect that they have been harmed as a result of a decision for high-rise construction permits can file criminal charges with the competent prosecutor's office. Also, if citizens think that they have suffered material or non-material damage, through the initiation of a legal-civil dispute they can realize their legal rights, seeking compensation for the damage caused.
AVONET has information that for these actions and serious legal violations, several responsible persons of the Municipality of Ferizaj are being prosecuted by the criminal prosecution bodies, where some have already had their indictments confirmed, while a criminal investigation procedure is being conducted against some others. Specifically, the persons whose indictments have been confirmed are being accused of falsifying documents and abuse of official duty, where the criminal process is being conducted before the competent court, while other officials are suspected of abuse of official duty, as a result of issuing several construction permits illegally.
Based on all of this evidence, facts and arguments that we presented today through this statement, which are also confirmed by final court decisions, AVONET considers that all of this should be an alarm for the State Prosecutor's Office, which, ex officio (ex officio) to take the necessary investigative measures, in order to hold all responsible persons criminally liable, for the fact that they have, at all times since 2017, in their capacity as official persons, during the exercise of their official duties, with direct intent, will and awareness, issued illegal construction permit decisions, even though they were continuously informed that these actions were illegal.
AVONET, estimates that all these existing high-rise buildings, besides being illegal, reflect an urban destruction of the city of Ferizaj, because most of these buildings are without sufficient green spaces, without spaces for emergency exits, without sufficient parking spaces, while regarding possible earthquakes no one can assess their potential risk. Also, unfortunately for the citizens of this city, some of these high-rise buildings are built on the edge of the yards of some schools, where the risk may be permanent for students.
AVONET, informs you that today it has requested from the Chief Administrative Officer of the Municipality of Ferizaj, the Mayor Mr. Agim Aliu, to urgently suspend any decision on the conditions and decisions of construction permits issued on this illegal legal basis and to stop issuing decisions on construction permits and conditions on this illegal basis, due to the fact that the damages that have been caused and potentially can be caused are irreparable and that the greatest victim will be the citizen, and as the Mayor he has legal responsibility for taking these actions.
AVONET congratulates the citizens of Ferizaj engaged in this case who, for 7 consecutive years, showed dedication, commitment, courage and tireless work, with the aim of realizing their legal rights and uncovering the truth in this case, where all their presented evidence and arguments were now confirmed by court decisions.
Finally, AVONET declares that it has never been against construction and urban development of the city of Ferizaj, but has been, is and will always remain against issuing construction permit decisions in violation of the legal provisions of the applicable legislation. AVONET is very concerned about the destruction or degradation of the city of Ferizaj, which degradation and urban destruction will cause irreparable consequences for the citizens who will live in this city in the future.
With respect,
AVONET NGO network