Institutional deadlock is harming the country both internally and in its integration path, says former Kosovo ambassador to the United States, Avni Spahiu, who describes the absence of a functioning government at this time as \u201cvery damaging and frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kosovo is in an institutional crisis, without a functional Assembly, even five months after the parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process has stalled at the election of the Speaker of the Assembly, as the winning party from the February 9 elections, the Vet\u00ebvendosje Movement, has failed to secure the 61 votes required to elect Albulena Haxhiu to the position. They are demanding a secret ballot, which is being opposed by other parliamentary parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with KosovaPress, Spahiu criticizes the political leadership for its lack of consensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very simple, if there is political will and if consensus can be reached, there needs to be interparty communication to get through this situation. The party that won the majority also holds the key to the solution. If a candidate fails several times, another can be proposed, that wouldn’t be unusual… From this perspective, the issue could easily be resolved. On the other hand, the opposition parties have taken a rebellious stance, refusing under any circumstances to seek a solution, and have taken a firm position demanding that the leading party make changes, while they themselves are unwilling to compromise,\u201d<\/em> Spahiu says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few days ago, the Constitutional Court set July 26 as the deadline for the constitution of Kosovo’s Assembly. However, it did not stipulate any consequences if the Assembly fails to form by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MPs have not shifted their positions even after the Court’s ruling, at least up to the continuation of the most recent session on Monday \u2013 the 43rd attempt to constitute the ninth legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Calls to resolve the situation have come from both within and outside Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, President Vjosa Osmani has held joint and separate meetings with representatives of political parties in an effort to resolve the crisis. However, no positive outcome has been achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former ambassador Avni Spahiu highlights the harm Kosovo is suffering due to the failure to form new institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe state cannot function, there are a series of issues, especially in international relations and other agreements that are awaiting parliamentary approval so that various processes can move forward, particularly integration processes with the international community. This is harmful. Internally as well, there are many things happening, and not having a government in place during this time is very damaging and frightening,\u201d<\/em> he emphasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also stresses the need for Kosovo to be present on the international stage so that, according to him, the punitive measures imposed in 2023 after tensions in the north of the country can be lifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas stated that the bloc had started the gradual removal of sanctions against Kosovo but did not specify which ones.\u201cWe must be more present everywhere. We must make efforts to be freed from these measures that have been imposed on Kosovo. There are promising signs, but we must especially work in this direction and be present in all international forums so that Kosovo\u2019s voice is heard more,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0says Spahiu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Institutional deadlock is harming the country both internally and in its integration path, says former Kosovo ambassador to the United States, Avni Spahiu, who describes the absence of a functioning government at this time as \u201cvery damaging and frightening.\u201d Kosovo is in an institutional crisis, without a functional Assembly, even five months after the parliamentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":75198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,296],"tags":[2224,6391,343],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75199,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75197\/revisions\/75199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}