No Serbs Apply for Kosovo Prosecutor Positions

The deadline for a contest to fill ten prosecutor positions reserved for members of the Serb community in Kosovo expired on August 31 without a single application. The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) has now extended the contest to September 15, the Council confirmed.

The contest ran from August 17 to 31 as part of a broader call to fill 34 vacant prosecutor positions across Kosovo’s judicial system. The Council decided to open it at a session on August 4, when it noted that the prosecutorial system, which currently employs 177 active prosecutors, was short that many staff. Of the 34 positions, ten are explicitly set aside for candidates from the Serb community, with the remaining 24 open to others.

In its decision to extend the deadline, cited by Oath for Justice, the Council stated that during the initial contest period “no application from a candidate of the Serb community was submitted for the reserved positions.” The KPC cited the needs of the prosecutorial system and its effort to ensure equal opportunity for filling the reserved posts as the reasons for the extension.

A Call That Went Unanswered

Council chairman Arian Gasi directly appealed to the Serb community to apply when the contest was announced in early August.

“That’s why I encourage members of the Serb community to apply. The process will be fair, independent and impartial.”

Gasi also said at the time that the representation of communities in Kosovo’s institutions is both a national interest and a legal obligation stemming from the dialogue with Belgrade and the commitments made in agreements reached so far. Council member Dardan Vunici, speaking at the same session, stressed that the KPC has an obligation to take measures to increase the representation of the Serb community in the prosecution service. That appeal, it turned out by August 31, produced no applications either.

Why Are There No Applications?

A similar scenario played out in 2024, when a contest for four then-reserved prosecutor positions also closed without a single Serb candidate. The explanation the Council offered at the time to RTV Dukagjini remains, based on available information, the only official account so far.

“We do not know the reasons why not a single candidate from the Serb community applied.”

The KPC described the lack of interest back then as a “serious problem” for meeting the prosecutorial system’s goals and building public trust, noting that the positions also needed filling because some of the earlier Serb prosecutors had retired.

A Contest After the Dismissal of Seven Prosecutors

The new contest comes just over a month after the KPC, at a session on July 20, rejected requests from Serb prosecutors and support staff at the Basic Prosecution Office in Mitrovica to withdraw resignations they had submitted in November 2022. Sources differ on the numbers here: KoSSev reports that five prosecutors, along with 15 members of professional and administrative staff, asked to withdraw their resignations, while Radio Kosovska Mitrovica puts the figure at six prosecutors and the same 15 staff members.

The day after the session, on July 21, Kosovo’s acting president Albuljena Hadziju signed decrees dismissing seven prosecutors from the Serb community whose 2022 resignations had formally remained pending. Neither the KPC nor the presidential office has publicly explained the gap between the number who sought to withdraw their resignations and the number actually dismissed.

The decisions by the Council and by Hadziju drew a reaction from the European Union, which said the process “does not appear to be in line with the law, due process and the general principles of the rule of law,” and called on institutions in Pristina to refrain from steps that would complicate the reintegration of Serb judges, prosecutors and other judicial staff. A similar assessment appeared in our earlier report on a decision affecting Serb judges in Kosovo, where the EU likewise warned that the rules were not being followed.

Serb judicial staff left Kosovo’s institutions in November 2022, as part of the broader collective walkout of Serbs from the police, judiciary and other bodies in northern Kosovo during the license plate crisis. The status of that staff remained unresolved for nearly four years, and this summer’s attempt to bring them back ended, at least for the prosecutors, in dismissals rather than reinstatement. Similar problems filling positions reserved for the Serb community, according to available information, also exist in Kosovo’s court system, where some contests for Serb judges have likewise had to be repeated for lack of candidates.

The new deadline expires on September 15. Whether a single application from the Serb community arrives by then, after two consecutive contests with no response, remains an open question.