Specialist Chambers: Kosovo Assembly Lacks Quorum Two Days
Lawmakers in Pristina did not reach a new vote on amendments to the Specialist Chambers law on November 12 or 13, and a fresh set of amendments is announced for Monday, November 16.
The Kosovo Assembly lacked enough lawmakers in the chamber two days in a row to return to the Specialist Chambers law. The session was adjourned on Thursday, November 12, after too few deputies came back from a break. On Friday, November 13, after almost 12 hours of sitting, it was adjourned again for lack of a quorum: only 38 deputies were in the hall. The amendments to the Law on the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, which Kosovo President Justina Siroka-Pulja returned to parliament, therefore never came up.
According to Friday’s reports, no new date for resuming the session has been announced. Assembly Speaker Aljbuljena Hadziju said she would agree on a date with the heads of parliamentary groups. For Sunday, November 15, the sources we reviewed report no new decision.
What happened on Thursday and Friday?
On Thursday the Assembly, at the request of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), added a new review of the law to its agenda. Seventy-nine deputies voted in favor, with none against and no abstentions. The session was then adjourned because deputies were late returning from the break, and it was set to resume on Friday at 11 a.m.
On Friday the law was never reached. The Assembly could not move from the energy item on the agenda to the renewed review of the amendments because there were not enough deputies in the hall. There was no debate on the law at any point.
Why is the law back in the Assembly?
The amendments were adopted in early October, and B92 reports the date as October 6. They were prompted by the Specialist Chambers verdicts of September 16: Hashim Taci and Jakup Krasnici were sentenced to 25 years in prison each, Kadri Veselji to 18 and Redzep Seljimi to 13, a total of 81 years. The verdicts were followed by protests under the slogan “Not in my name.”
The proposed amendments narrow the Specialist Chambers’ jurisdiction to the crimes described in the Dick Marty report and introduce international oversight of those institutions. B92 also reports that the maximum sentence is shortened and that pardons become possible. War crimes outside the chambers’ mandate would be tried in Kosovo courts.
President Siroka-Pulja returned the law to the Assembly in late October, at the request of its own sponsor, the PDK, which wanted certain changes written into the text at the time. The party later changed its position. It now wants the veto overridden so that the text lawmakers passed in two readings takes effect, with amendments to follow afterward. Acting PDK leader Vljora Citaku announced that the party will submit a new amendment initiative on Monday, November 16, and that the procedure should be finished within two weeks.
Overriding the veto requires at least 61 votes in the 120-seat Assembly. If the law gets that majority, it is considered promulgated.
Who supports it, and who has reservations?
The head of the Self-Determination parliamentary group, Arberie Nagavci, confirmed to Radio Free Europe that the party’s deputies will support the law again, even though they previously had reservations. Her colleague Adnan Rustemi argued the opposite in a debate in the Assembly’s Legislation Committee: that the veto should not be overridden and that work on the law should start over.
The chair of that committee, Vigan Corolji, also voiced reservations. Speaking to Radio Free Europe, in a statement carried by KoSSev, he said:
“I fear that the law, as it is now and as it was on October 6, cannot be implemented.”
Corolji also judged that the PDK launched the initiative without the necessary legal analysis and sufficient institutional consultation. Vulnet Bugacku, a legal expert at the Kosovo Democratic Institute, questioned the sequence of steps itself: why would deputies override a veto that asks for the law to be improved, only to adopt the same text and restart the amendment procedure?
What are the EU and embassies saying?
The European Union Office in Kosovo again expressed serious concern over Pristina’s obligations and respect for the rule of law. It cited judicial independence, protection of victims and witnesses, procedural rights and effective accountability, as well as the question of the amendments’ constitutionality, and asked for consultations before any vote. The German embassy backed the EU position, the British embassy warned that a new vote could damage Pristina’s relations with international partners, and the Italian embassy voiced similar concern. As we reported on November 12, the EU, London and Berlin had already called for consultations.
The date for resuming the session depends on what Hadziju agrees with the heads of parliamentary groups. Separately, the PDK has announced a new amendment proposal for Monday, November 16, and Citaku wants that procedure completed within two weeks.
