Amid Political Turmoil, Kosovo Parliament Extends Holiday

The chairman of parliament, Kadri Veseli, said on Monday that the date of the next assembly session is yet to be decided because MPs' holidays have been extended until next month.

"Many members of parliament are abroad until February, and we are planning to hold a presidency meeting by the beginning of February to decide on the dates of the parliamentary sessions," Veseli said.

Parliament was due to start working on January 19, and postponing sessions due to the extension of MPs' holidays is unprecedented.

The assembly had been expected to quickly process several pending laws and make urgent decisions on a number of important institutional appointments.

The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council is still incomplete as parliament has to appoint three new members, while the Procurement Review Body - an institution that monitors tender procedures in Kosovo - is waiting for a new chairman to be appointed.

In spring, the assembly is expected to approve the country's recently-agreed border demarcation with Montenegro, and an agreement with the Netherlands on hosting the new Special Court to try former KLA officials, which is to be based in The Hague.

However, the Kosovo opposition says that the delay relates to its commitment to disrupt any parliamentary session until two controversial agreements with Serbia and Montenegro are scrapped.

"Obviously the postponement of the [first] session relates to the political crisis in Kosovo, which was caused by signing damaging agreements with Serbia and Montenegro," Frasher Krasniqi, a spokesperson for the opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party told BIRN.

He said that previous sessions which were disrupted by opposition MPs setting off tear gas in the chamber should also have been...

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