Kosovo Assembly’s committee on public administration, local governance and media endorsed today draft law on Pristina paving way for the MPs to vote on it in one of the Assembly’s sessions. The draft law, giving Pristina additional powers and budget, received the support of all parliamentary parties represented at the committee.

During yesterday’s debate at the Assembly of Kosovo over the opposition claims that Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) veterans’ lists were “inflated”, Finance Minister Bedri Hamza said that while at it, the issue of the “inflated” number of women raped during the conflict in Kosovo should also be addressed. “20,000 women were not raped during the war,” Hamza declared.

Vjosa Osmani from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) has been appointed chair of the Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Osmani said foreign affairs require a great deal of cooperation between political parties and that she hoped this would be achieved during her tenure.

Vetevendosje’s MP, Donika Kadaj-Bujupi, has been appointed to chair the Assembly Committee for the Oversight of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA). Kadaj-Bujupi said the committee will soon call the head of KIA to report on a number of issues that have so far not been addressed.

The plenary session of the Assembly of Kosovo started today with the request of the Vetevendosje’s MP, Liburn Aliu, to revote LDK’s motion for dismissal of the Minister for Agriculture, Nenad Rikalo.

Members of the Kosovo Assembly approved the agreement on the Instrument of Pre-Accession which enables Kosovo access to over € 70 million assistance from the EU. The agreement received the support of all MPs present at the session.

Kosovo MP, Slavko Simic harshly criticized some politicians in the Kosovo Assembly yesterday, saying they create “an atmosphere of lynch” against Minister of Agriculture, Nenad Rikalo, KIM Radio reported.

The U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo, Greg Delawie, said he agreed with the statement of the EU Special Representative Nataliya Apostolova who criticized the Kosovo Assembly for being slow in scheduling the next session. “Assembly should get to work as soon as possible to serve the people of Kosovo. Real problems need solutions now,” Delawie tweeted.

Head of the EU Office in Kosovo and Special Representative, Nataliya Apostolova, said she was disappointed with the slowness of Kosovo Assembly’s work being that it held no other session following its constitutive one. In a roundtable organised by the Group for Political and Legal Studies on the implementation of Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), Apostolova said she plans to convey her concerns to the Assembly President, Kadri Veseli.

The Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) think tank issued a statement warning that even four months of general elections and numerous obstacles, the Assembly of Kosovo is not yet fully functional. KDI said that apart from assigning parliamentary committees, political parties have yet to propose names of MPs that would chair them or take part in them. “Establishment of parliamentary committees as Assembly’s working bodies, is a prerequisite to the functioning of this institution,” KDI said.