The Draft Law on the Cultural Heritage this week will be on the agenda of the Assembly of Kosovo. Serb representatives believe that the bill is not in the interests of Serbs and announce amendments.
“The provisions of the law are too broad and leave a lot of space for resolving outstanding issues which relate to cultural heritage with bylaws. The law is in many ways at odds with what Kosovo has took over with the Ahtisaari plan, and there are fears that the adoption of the draft law would undermine legal continuity and what is guaranteed to all minority communities in Kosovo,” said Jasmina Zivkovic deputy from the parliamentary group Serbian List and added that this law gives room to a Minister to bring decision on a cultural monument of a national interest to become the subject of the expropriation process.
“So there is a fear that they will use it in a way that is not in the interest of the Serbian community in Kosovo,” she said.
One of the controversial articles of the law is and the Article 36, about the sale and expropriation of cultural heritage, stating the following:
“When the evaluation was completed about the national interest of some property of cultural heritage, the ministry before the decision on expropriation first consults the Kosovo Council for Cultural Heritage, no. 03 / L 139 on expropriation of immovable property.”
Institutions that under the new law are mandated to protect and preserve the cultural heritage are the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Trade and Industry, Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, municipalities, cadastral and other institutions.
From the Serbian List say that they will try with the amendments to harmonize the Law, but if the bill passes, in principle, will seek the opinion of the Constitutional Court.
