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Kosovo/ EU Office encourages political parties to quickly constitute the Assembly
2025-08-20 19:50:19 / KOSOVA
The European Union on Wednesday encouraged political parties in Kosovo to respect the Constitutional Court's ruling and quickly constitute the Assembly, just hours after the latest failure of MPs to break the deadlock.
The EU office in Kosovo told Radio Free Europe that the bloc "is carefully following developments related to the constitution of the Assembly and the formation of the Government."
The MPs gathered on Wednesday morning to continue the constitutive session, after two days ago the country's highest court published the full verdict regarding this issue, which obliges them to form a new Parliament within a period of 30 days, which expires on September 18.
However, the constitution failed after neither of the two candidates proposed by the election-winning party Vetevendosje – Albulena Haxhiu and Donika Gërvalla – managed to receive more than 57 votes, which is 4 votes less than the minimum 61 votes required to be elected.
The EU Office stressed that "the rapid formation of the Assembly and the Government is essential for Kosovo to move forward with important reforms in all sectors, which will improve the quality of life and standard of living of Kosovo's citizens."
Meanwhile, the Italian Embassy in Pristina saw as encouraging the fact that Vetëvendosje, led by the incumbent Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, proposed a new candidate for speaker of parliament, after having only proposed Haxhiu in the past.
In a written response to REL, the Italian Embassy said that Gërvalla's proposal "shows a willingness to make progress, which will need to be confirmed in the coming days."
"We hope that all political actors will work responsibly to ensure the timely constitution of the Assembly, in accordance with the Constitutional Court's ruling," she said.
After the session, Vetëvendosje accused the other major parties in the Assembly, such as PDK, LDK and AAK, of proving that Haxhiu's name was not the main problem, but that they "are aiming to block the formation of institutions."
PDK reiterated its position that it only has votes for a Vetëvendosje candidate, who was not part of the Government in the previous mandate.
LDK said Vetevendosje knew that Haxhiu and Gërvalla did not have enough votes. In the past, LDK has repeatedly said that it will not vote for any Vetevendosje candidate for speaker of parliament.
Meanwhile, AAK said it expects that in the next session, Vetëvendosje will propose names for which it does not have support.
The Social Democratic Initiative said it will abstain and will not vote until a political agreement is reached.
The continuation of the session was scheduled for Friday, August 22nd.
Kosovo held parliamentary elections in February, but has not been able to establish new institutions since then.
This entire months-long crisis comes as a result of the lack of a political agreement between parliamentary parties, as no party won the majority to govern alone.
Vetëvendosje won 48 seats, PDK came in second with 24 seats, LDK third with 20, followed by the Serbian List – the largest Serb party in Kosovo – with 9, and the coalition between AAK and the Social Democratic Initiative, with 8.
Another 11 seats belong to minorities./ REL
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