Pavkovic: The Constitutional Court should be expected to declare the constitutive session of the Assembly unconstitutional

Milos Pavkovic, Director of Strategy at the Center for European Policies in Belgrade, said that, based on the earlier practice of constituting the Kosovo Assembly, when Serbian deputy speakers of parliament were always elected, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo should be expected to issue a ruling in line with the Serb List’s appeal, namely to declare the constitutive session unconstitutional.

Such a decision, he added, would mean ordering a repeat election of the Assembly president and deputy speakers, which would include the election of a representative of the Serb community, i.e., from the Serb List.

The Constitutional Court’s temporary measure, which prohibited MPs from undertaking any activities or initiating procedures to form a new Government of Kosovo, expires on Tuesday. Pavkovic recalled that the measure followed the election of the president and four deputy speakers of parliament, during which no deputy speaker from the Serbian community was elected.

Taking into account the Court’s earlier ruling that the election of the Assembly president must be by secret ballot and limited to a maximum of three attempts, he expects the process to return to the beginning, requiring the election of all deputy speakers as well as the Assembly president, within the constraints of the previous ruling.

“This means that either a decision will have to be made within a reasonable timeframe, or snap parliamentary elections will be called,” Pavkovic said.

He emphasized, however, that there is also another option, though in his view less likely.

“That would be for the Constitutional Court to say that no violation of the Constitution occurred and that the Assembly is considered constituted even without Serbian representatives. This is a less likely scenario because, in previous political practice regarding the Assembly’s constitution, such a situation has never occurred. So I would not expect the Constitutional Court to legitimize in this way a breach of parliamentary procedure and the Constitution of Kosovo,” Pavkovic believes.