Kosovo – New constitution

The constitution of Kosovo came into effect on Sunday. For the record, it establishes (or confirms) a parliamentary system.

The document is available here. The president is elected by the assembly (Art. 86-1). The government needs the approval of parliament and can be dismissed by parliament.

Kosovo has adopted the model that operates in Albania, which is also parliamentary, rather than the Former Yugoslavia model. With the exception of Bosnia’s unusual status, all countries in the Former Yugoslavia have semi-presidential constitutions.

The Constitutional Commission in Kosovo has a lot of detail available on its website. One page provides a list of all the articles that were changed during the drafting process. Interestingly, Article 86 was not amended at all. So, either the principle of parliamentarism seems to have been accepted by all parties in the discussion from the very outset, or this article was not considered to be open for amendment.

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