The Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKK) has decided to refer the issue of the new Regulation on the Admission Procedure in the Civil Service to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the regulation violates the local autonomy of Kosovo’s municipalities.
In a statement for KosovaPress, AKK Chair Sazan Ibrahimi said that the new regulation would centralize the recruitment system for civil staff, according to municipal mayors’ views.
“Therefore, for this reason, the mayors believe that such an action is not in harmony with the Constitution. In this Regulation on Admission to the Civil Service, Article 4, paragraph 6, states that recruitment procedures are conducted by DMZP for state administration institutions, except for institutions that have civil servants with special status, for which recruitment procedures are carried out by the unit responsible for personnel recruitment within that institution. DMZP is the Department for the Wellbeing of Public Officials within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. So, recruitment procedures will be conducted by this unit for all state administration institutions except certain institutions. This scope also includes municipalities. This regulation authorizes this department within the Ministry of Internal Affairs to conduct recruitment procedures also for civil staff at the local level, which mayors consider a violation of local government autonomy. Furthermore, based on international conventions, particularly the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which Kosovo’s Constitution incorporates in terms of principles of local autonomy, mayors believe there is also a violation of this charter, and for this reason they have decided to address the Constitutional Court,” Ibrahimi told KosovaPress.
This regulation also applies to other state institutions, with the exception of the Presidency, Constitutional Court, judicial system, Assembly of Kosovo, and independent constitutional institutions.
