Edona Peci BIRN Pristina
Confusion erupted after Kosovo’s constitutional court urged parliament to change new amnesty legislation that was passed in a bid to help integrate the Serb minority.

The chairman of Kosovo’s parliament said on Thursday that the legislature’s legal administration, rather than MPs, should amend the controversial legislation after the constitutional court called for several sections to be struck out before it goes onto the statute books.

“As far as I know, the administration of the parliament has to clean up the law in line with the request the constitutional court made. After this, the law will be sent to the president who has to sign the law, and then it goes into force,” said parliament chairman Jakup Krasniqi.

But others argued that a much more complex procedure must be followed in order to fulfil the court’s ruling, which could further delay the implementation of the law that Brussels has urged Pristina to push through.

The law, which is considered a key part of the deal to normalise relations between Kosovo and Serbia, was approved by parliament in July after a previous version was voted down on the grounds that it could amnesty people for crimes like murder.

It aims to help integrate Serbs in north Kosovo by ensuring they are not prosecuted for resistance to the Pristina authorities in the past, which would prevent them from taking roles in Kosovo public institutions in the future.

On Tuesday however, the constitutional court ruled that several parts of the legislation should be struck out. It demanded the removal of sections suggesting amnesties for offences such as the destruction of property, assisting offenders after they have committed crimes, and the falsification of documents.

MPs from the opposition Vetvendosje, which opposed the law, had asked the constitutional court to review it.

This caused legal expert Betim Musliu from the Kosovo Law Institute to argue that according to parliamentary regulations, the legislature’s chairman now “has to ask the sponsor of the act [the government] and the [relevant] parliamentary working groups [which include MPs from Vetvendosje] to amend the law in line with the court’s ruling. balkaninsight