More than four million euros were allocated for the salaries of RTK workers in today’s meeting of the caretaker government.
The acting Minister of Finance, Hekuran Murati, criticized other political parties, which according to him “refused to carry out their duty to establish the Budget Committee and vote on the RTK budget.”
“Four million and 480 thousand euros for the public broadcaster had to be saved or taken as savings from existing projects within other budgetary organizations because the opposition parties in the Assembly refused to carry out their duty—namely, to establish the Budget Committee and thus vote on RTK’s budget. Since the Assembly, as the founder of RTK, has been unable for some time to ensure salaries for the employees, we as the government had to take this improvised step, I would say, in order to find an emergency solution and secure the salaries for the workers of the Public Broadcaster,” Murati said.
In the meeting of the caretaker government, several decisions were made regarding property expropriations and financial support. Among them, the government cabinet approved the decision to expropriate immovable properties affected by the project for “coal exploitation for electricity production for the needs of the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK).”
The acting Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure, Hysen Durmishi, said the project will take place in Shipitullë, Hade, Leskoviq, and Palaj.
“The legal conditions defined under the Law on Expropriation of Immovable Property have been met, and it is proposed that the Government of Kosovo issue a preliminary decision confirming the legality of the expropriation process for public interest of the immovable properties of owners and interest holders affected by the implementation of the project ‘expansion of surface mining for coal extraction for electricity production for the needs of the Kosovo Energy Corporation in the cadastral zones of Sibovc, Shipitullë, Leskovic, Hade, and Palaj of the Municipality of Obiliq’,” Durmishi said.
In today’s government meeting, the cabinet also approved the initiative to amend the financial agreement between the Republic of Kosovo and the European Union for the IPA 2014 program.
The acting Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Development, and Dialogue, Besnik Bislimi, said this initiative needs to be approved to continue with the next procedures.
“Through this amendment, we enable the extension of the planned deadline for the implementation of the project agreement by an additional two years, since there were delays in the execution of contracts based on this agreement. It concerns the construction of the Gjakova Municipality building. According to the explanation provided by the European Union Office, as the contracting authority for IPA funds, several factors contributed to the delays and the extension of the current work contract, including the COVID-19 period and supply chain disruptions following the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, which also caused price increases,” Bislimi stated.
