(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Kosovo's parliament on Friday is due to hold its first session in 2016 after meeting for the last time two months ago on December 17.
The opening session of the year is due to discuss and approve 22 items including ratifying a number of loans such as a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD intended for the railways and a loan from the German government.
The delayed meeting follows the extension of the MPs’ New Year holiday until February after opposition MPs threatened to disrupt any assembly sessions.
Opposition MPs who previously used tear gas to interrupt the sessions have not changed their approach however.
Aida Derguti from the Vetevendosje [Self-Determination] party said previous assembly sessions had been doomed to be disrupted and nothing had changed.
“The sessions were abnormal and let us not pretend that we are back to normality” she said.
The assembly is also due to take a number of urgent decisions on important institutional appointments.
The Prosecutorial Council remains incomplete as parliament has yet to appoint three new members while the Procurement Review Body – an institution that monitors tender procedures – is awaiting a new chairman.
In coming weeks the assembly is also due to approve the controversial border demarcation agreement with Montenegro and an agreement with The Netherlands on hosting the new Special Court to try former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters which is to be based in The Hague.
The chairman of parliament Kadri Veseli said he expected better scenes than those the country saw last year.
“I expect understanding not scenes like the ones before. We have a tough opposition but at they should not be destructive” Veseli said.
The chairman of Vetevendosje Visar Ymeri said Veseli’s hopes of a return to normality were futile however.
“There can be no institutional normality or decisions from this unconstitutional establishment” Ymeri said.
Behlul Beqiri a Pristina-based analyst told BIRN that joint decision-making in Kosovo had become impossible as the political feuds had grown too bitter.
“There is no democratic decision-making if decisions are taken by one side only
bypassing and neglecting the non-participation of the other side in policymaking” Beqiri said.
He believes things may get worse before they get better and that dire consequences may occur if both sides do not find a genuine resolution.
“Hostilities will deepen and when a boiling point is reached a conflict of unpredictable dimensions may erupt with severe consequences which will also affect the people of Kosovo” Beqiri predicted.
Vetevendosje with its two allies the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo AAK and the Initiative for Kosovo Nisma have blocked parliamentary activity since October
objecting to the government’s EU-mediated agreements with Serbia and Montenegro. They object in particular to the deal with Serbia as it provides for the establishment of an autonomous Association of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo which the opposition says will give the Kosovo Serbs - and Serbia - too much power.