Prishtinë, 15 July 2024 – The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) informs the public opinion that the Government of Kosovo has continuously ignored and rejected the comments, suggestions and proposals of the delegated representatives of the KPC in the working groups, formed by the Ministry of Justice and in the committees of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo for completing and amending the new Law on KPC, which was approved on July 11, 2024.
This one-sided practice of approving legal acts clearly shows that the Government of Kosovo and the majority in the Assembly of Kosovo, knowingly and in the name of reforms, intend to do the opposite of the reform, i.e. blocking and de-functionalizing the prosecutorial system.
KPC emphasizes that the adoption of this law constitutes disrespect and an open violation of the main principles of the Joint Declaration of Commitment, which, in itself, represents a kind of absurdity of a rare kind, because the composition of the current Executive, namely the Ministry of Justice, does not manage to avoid political positions in relation to the prosecutorial system, ignoring numerous suggestions and contradicting not only the well-founded demands of KPC representatives, but also the demands and recommendations of representatives of the European Union and local and international organizations.
However, the KPC is particularly thankful and grateful to the international and civil society representatives in the country, who stood up for these principles and persistently insisted that the Government and Assembly of Kosovo not ignore the recommendations of local institutions, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE regarding the Draft Law on the Prosecutorial Council. On this occasion, the KPC has fully joined the meaningful calls and appeals for the respect of European norms and standards before the adoption of this law and other laws in the Assembly, strongly criticizing the government’s approach regarding the violation of the independence of the country’s constitutional institutions, such as it is KPC.
In reality, this tendency of the power, already fully revealed, represents a rigorous intervention in the prosecutorial system and in the entire justice system, renewing every day actions and all kinds of farces and insinuations, with the sole purpose, perhaps, in the name of the aim of empowerment of greater accountability in the prosecutorial system, to achieve a balance of composition with prosecutor and non-prosecutor members, but which, in itself, is an attempt to capture and direct the KPC and the State Prosecutor and violates the constitutional mandate and independence of the prosecutorial system, making it impossible to function and making him easily influenced by politics.
Finally, the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council emphasizes that it remains committed to supporting the reform processes and is committed to cooperate with all local and international partners in any initiative aimed at the necessary reform, in order to strengthen the rule of the law in Kosovo and the prosecutorial system to do its independent, professional, accountable and transparent work, but at the same time requires full respect of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo and the avoidance of any tendency for the unconstitutional capture of the country’s independent institutions.