Clarification by the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council
Pristina, June 18, 2019 - The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) notifies the public about the concerns expressed through two articles in the media regarding the drafting of the Regulation on the Appointment of the Chief State Prosecutor and Chief Prosecutors of Prosecution offices of Kosovo.
We inform you that this process is being implemented in full support of the US Embassy in Kosovo and with the participation of other international partners, such as: representatives of the United Kingdom Embassy and EU Office in Kosovo.
For the drafting of this draft regulation, several meetings were held in which the Initial draft was completed, along with the additional documents that will be part of it.
Regarding your writings that KPC is eliminating candidates, let us know the following:
Article 4 of Law no. 03 / L-052 on the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo provides that:
Chief Prosecutor of the SPRK will be elected by one of the Special Prosecutors in accordance with the procedures established by applicable law.
This article has been reformulated with Article 2, paragraph 2 of Law No. 04/273 on amending and supplementing laws related to the mandate of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in the Republic of Kosovo, where it is stipulated that Article 4 of the basic law, paragraph 4.1, the term "Special Prosecutor" is replaced with the term " Prosecutor with Permanent mandate".
However, with the entry into force of the new Criminal Code of Kosovo, in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo, Law No. 04/273 on amending and supplementing the laws related to the mandate of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in the Republic of Kosovo, appears as abrogated, the law which amended 8 laws: Law No. 03 / L-052 on Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo, Law N \ n.03 / L-053 on Jurisdiction, Case Selection and Case Allocation of EULEX Judges and Prosecutors in Kosovo, Criminal Code Republic of Kosovo no. 04-L / 082, Code of Criminal Procedure of Kosovo no. 04-L / 123, Law no. 04 / L-033 on the Special Chamber of the Supreme Court of Kosovo on Privatization Agency Related Matters, Law no. 03 / L-137 on the Department of Forensic Medicine, Law no. 04 / L-015 on Witness Protection and the Customs and Excise Code of Kosovo no. 03 / L-109).
Therefore, considering that in the new Criminal Code of Kosovo, Law No. 04/273 on amending and supplementing the laws related to the mandate of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in the Republic of Kosovo, appears as abrogated, KPC has requested from the Assembly of Kosovo to provide clarification or interpretation if this law has been completely abrogated (i.e. for all laws amended by this law) or only with respect to the provisions of the new Criminal Code of Kosovo.
Since so far, the KPC did not receive any clarification or interpretation of the Assembly, we still have not been able to approve this regulation, which is considered one of the most important regulations of the prosecutorial system.
In this context do not stand the allegations presented in the two articles published in the media that the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council is completely neglecting the importance of approving the Regulation for amending and supplementing the Regulation on the appointment of Chief Prosecutors or that the new Regulation aims to eliminate candidates from the competition for special prosecutor because the KPC in cooperation with international partners is continuously working on drafting this regulation and has no intention to eliminate possible candidates for chief prosecutor, rather, wants to give the opportunity to all prosecutors who meet the legal requirements for the position of chief prosecutor in each prosecution office. However, it is first necessary to eliminate all dilemmas related to the law that should be applied in these cases.
