Ukshini: International agreements cannot be amended, MPs made a mistake out of ignorance

Former diplomat Syle Ukshini stated that members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Kosovo Assembly made a mistake by not approving the Draft Law on ratifying the Agreement on Kosovo’s membership in the Board of Peace, emphasizing that international agreements cannot be amended.

“The mistake is that members of the Foreign Affairs Committee did not understand what an international agreement is, so they thought they could change one of its articles. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as under the Constitution of Kosovo, such an agreement can never be amended. On the other hand, parliament is not a negotiating party to this agreement and therefore cannot intervene,” Ukshini explained to Kosovo Online.

He added that the Assembly can approve an agreement or recommend that the government negotiate it, but in this case the specific document is not a matter for negotiation.

“MPs rejected it more out of ignorance, given that both the government and the opposition consider Kosovo’s inclusion in the Board of Peace to be beyond their differences. This serves Kosovo in consolidating its image and international position, presenting it as an international entity with credibility. The Committee will reconsider this stance and, after consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or legal experts, it will be confirmed that they will not touch it. Therefore, the agreement can be ratified or rejected, but it cannot be amended,” Ukshini said.

Responding to the remark that circumstances have changed since the official launch of the Board of Peace in Davos at the end of January, he said that this is true, but that the position of the United States carries weight in Kosovo, and that Albanians, historically speaking, have more trust in the US than in Europe.

“There are political and historical reasons for that, which may be right or wrong and could be debated for years, but in the eyes of Kosovo Albanians the European Union appears as a subject with clientelist attitudes in the Balkans that does not contribute to unification,” Ukshini added.