Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
Hekuran Murati, the acting Minister of Finance, has stated that by not constituting the Kosovo Assembly, the country risks losing 90 million euros in interest-free loans allocated by the World Bank to Kosovo, which, according to him, have been awaiting ratification by the Assembly since May 2024.
He, through two statuses in his account on Facebook, claimed that opposition parties during the last legislature had refused to vote to ratify this agreement.
But what is the truth of this claim?
Hibrid.info has found that the agreement was in fact not voted on in the Assembly, due to lack of a quorum.
Both of these posts, where he mentioned the opposition's non-vote for the agreement in question, were published on June 23 (see here and here).
Analyze:
Murati has stated that this agreement has been awaiting ratification in the Assembly since May of last year. Hibrid.info has checked the website of the Assembly of Kosovo to find information about the sessions of this institution in May 2024 (see here).
The session when the agreement was reviewed was held on May 23, 2024. "Review of the Draft Law on the ratification of the Financing Agreement for the first program for financing development policies for fiscal effectiveness, competitiveness and green growth between the Republic of Kosovo and the International Development Association was not foreseen in the agenda of this session (see here).
However, from the minutes of this session it is understood that the review of this draft law was decided to be carried out in deviation from the procedural deadlines foreseen in the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, which means that the vote (for 77, against 11, abstentions 0) on this agreement was decided during the session (see pages 4 and 5 of the minutes). here)
In the draft law document, in Article 2, paragraph 3, it is written that "The Financing Agreement will provide budgetary support to the Republic of Kosovo in the amount of ninety million three hundred thousand euros (€90,300,000) in the form of budgetary support. Regarding the financing terms, the loan has a maturity of 12 years, with a 6-year grace period. The loan has no interest or other service fees." (see here).
Even from pages 15 and 16 of the session transcript, based on the statements made at the time by Minister Murati and the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Armend Muja, it is understood that this is the same agreement that the acting minister has referred to in his recent posts. Both have mentioned that it is about 90 million euros with an effective rate of 0%. (see here).
However, page 17 of the transcript shows that this agreement was not passed due to the lack of a quorum, although the Speaker of the Assembly, Glauk Konjufca, during this vote had noted that 84 deputies were present, but that some of them had not voted (see here). The approval of international agreements requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds (80) of the members of the Assembly, which means that the quorum required for voting is more than 80 members.
The transcript lacks data on the MPs who voted.
Hibrid.info has researched to find the video of this plenary session. From the video found on the channel of the news agency "KosovaPress" on Youtube, it was found that the vote on this agreement was done by show of hands (see here). The deputies of the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV), the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and those of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) voted in favor. The deputies from the Democratic League of Kosovo did not participate in the vote.
It is difficult to understand from the footage who prevented the quorum in this session, but what is seen from the transcript is that all other international agreements envisaged in this session had received the green light from the deputies, with the exception of this agreement. This is also confirmed by this report prepared at the time by the television "Klan Kosova" (see here).
Another development that refutes Murat's claim is the meeting between Prime Minister Albin Kurti, also the leader of the LVV, and Memli Krasniqi, the chairman of the PDK, held ten days before this session (May 13).
At this meeting, the possibility of cooperation for voting on 13 international agreements was discussed (see here and here), whose vote had been promised two days later (May 15) by Bedri Hamza, PDK's candidate for prime minister in the February 9 elections (see here).
How are international agreements voted on?
Article 10 i Law No. 04/L-052 on International Agreements stipulates that: “1. The Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of all members of the Assembly, shall ratify international agreements on the following issues: 1.1. territory, peace, alliances, political and military issues; 1.2. fundamental rights and freedoms; 1.3. membership of the Republic of Kosovo in international organizations; 1.4. assumption of financial obligations by the Republic of Kosovo."
Furthermore, paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this law state that: “2. The international agreements referred to in paragraph 1. of this Article shall be ratified by a law voted by two-thirds (2/3) of all members of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. 3. The international agreements of the Republic of Kosovo referred to in paragraph 1. of this Article shall be submitted to the Assembly on its own initiative or upon proposal by the Government. 4. The international agreements of the Republic of Kosovo, except for those in paragraph 1. of this Article, shall be ratified after being signed by the President."
It is worth noting that, in the previous legislature, from the Albanian parties LVV had 55 deputies, PDK 18 deputies, LDK 17 deputies and AAK nine deputies (see here).
Conclusion:
The statement of the acting minister Hekuran Murati, according to which the opposition parties in the previous legislature had refused to vote on the ratification of the agreement for a 90 million euro interest-free loan from the World Bank, is not true. This is because the agreement was not ratified due to the lack of a quorum, and not due to the opposition parties voting against it, of which only LDK did not participate in the vote, while PDK and AAK voted in favor.
In accordance with the criteria for categorizing statements related to objective and verifiable facts, Murat's statement falls into the category of truthfulness.
Based on the declaration control methodology, the same is assessed as "half-truth".
Reasoning:
In the category of truthfulness, those statements that contain statements related to objective facts, the accuracy of which can be determined through objective verification, are evaluated. Statements treated in this category receive the assessment – false statement, half-truth, or even true statement.