The President of the Assembly has a special role as the leader and highest representative of the Assembly. The President represents the Assembly, proposes the agenda for the meetings of the Assembly, calls for and chairs the meetings, sings acts adopted by the Assembly, is responsible for maintaining order at the meetings and exercises other functions, according to the Constitution and Rules of Procedure of the Assembly. The President shall make the final interpretation of the Rules of Procedure during the plenary meeting.
The President chairs the meetings of the Presidency and leads its work.
The President, accompanied by the one vice-president, chairs the plenary sessions of the Assembly from the desk of the president of the Assembly, based on the agenda.
The President opens and closes discussions, gives the floor to MPs, Prime Minister and ministers, and administers voting during the plenary session.
The President of the Assembly is proposed by the largest parliamentary group and is elected with the majority of votes of all Assembly MPs, for a full term (four years) in the Assembly.
In case he is absent or on his request, the President of the Assembly shall be substituted by one of the vice-presidents.
In accordance with Article 90 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, the President of the Assembly shall exercise the function of the President of the Republic of Kosovo, up to six months, in case President of the Republic of Kosovo is temporarily not able to conduct his constitutional duties.
Presidency of the Assembly of Kosovo plans and organizes the work of the Assembly. It consists of the president and five vice-presidents, who represent three largest parliamentary groups in the Assembly and non-majority communities.
The President and vice-presidents are elected by the Assembly, with the majority of votes of the MPs, on the proposal of parliamentary groups.
The Presidency has important duties that are related to the daily work of the Assembly. It proceeds working documents that are sent to the Assembly (reports, draft laws, recommendations from committees etc.) and places them in the agenda of the plenary session, or appoints committees for review.
Presidency prepares the work programm of the Assembly. It reviews and prepares the agenda of the upcoming meetings of the Assembly with the approval of parliamentary groups about the form and duration of discussions for a certain matter.
Presidency meets at least three days before the upcoming meeting of the Assembly, to review and prepare the agenda for the next meeting of the Assembly.
Presidency develops external parliamentary relations and other international activities in their area of responsibility. Presidency reviews requests and decides on visits abroad of the delegations and MPs representing the Assembly.
Presidency of the Assembly elects the Secretary of the Assembly based on a competition. Presidency approves the draft budget of the Assembly, prepared by the Committee on Budget and Finance, in cooperation with the Assembly Administration.
Decisions of the Presidency are taken by consensus, but in absence of consensus, the decision shall be taken with the majority of votes of those that have voted. In case of an equality of votes, the vote of the President shall decide.
Presidency acts as a collective body in coordinating the work of the Assembly. It usually meets once a week, to plan and review important issues. During these Presidency meetings, the upcoming plenary session and its agenda shall be determined. Presidency consults parliamentary groups for all these coordination matters.
The Committees are working bodies of the Assembly and most of them cover corresponding ministries in the government.
Each Committee consists of 9 to 12 MPs, representing all parliamentary groups in the Assembly. Therefore, committees may be seen as “small plenary sessions” of the Assembly that prepare the work of the Assembly plenary session.
The Kosovo Assembly Committees should meet at least twice a month, but most of them meet once a week. Their meetings are usually open for the public.
At the beginning of legislature, the Assembly, on the proposal of the Presidency, decides on the number and composition of parliamentary committees. During legislatures, the number of committees differed.
Four standing committees: Committee on Legislation, Committee on Budget and Finance, Committee on European Integrations and Committee on Rights and Interests of Communities and Return, review all draft laws that come to the Assembly, to ensure that they meet the set criteria.
Functional Committees have one or more specific field of work. They cover the field of respective ministries, which deal with everyday life matters such as health, education, economy, transport, social welfare, local government and media.
The Assembly may establish and ad hoc committee, with the authority of functional committee.
Meetings of the Committees of the Kosovo Assembly are translated simultaneously into Albanian and Serbian language.
Committees review draft laws and present recommendations and their justification for review and approval at the plenary session. Most of the drafts laws are proposed by the Government in the Assembly. In a process that covers several steps and includes several committees, draft laws are tightly scrutinized and amendments-supplements are proposed at the plenary session for adoption.
The Committees also oversee the work of their line ministries. An important aspect is the oversight of the implementation of existing laws.
As main working bodies of the Assembly, committees review in details all draft laws and reports submitted to the Assembly. With the aim of having well-informed point of views, committees rely on the external expertise and the opinion of important groups of the society. These evidence from outside are provided by experts and civil society organizations. In order to collect such evidence, committees hold public hearings for specific topics, which are being reviewed.
Each committee is led by the chairperson and two vice-chairpersons. In the absence of the chairperson, meetings may be called by the first or second vice-chairperson.
Committee decides with the majority of member’s votes.
The MPs of the same party, usually gather together to establish a parliamentary group. Some of the important rights and functions can be exercised only collectively through the parliamentary group.
All MPs have the right to equally participate in the parliamentary group, to withdraw from the group, to establish a new parliamentary group, to join a new group or to act as an independent MP. In order to establish a parliamentary group, it is necessary to have 5 percent of the Assembly MPs or at least six MPs. In cases when the number of MPs, new members of a parliamentary group, falls under this minimum, this groups ceases to exist.
One MP cannot be a member of more than one parliamentary group.
The Assembly may establish informal groups of MPs. Currently, there are two such groups: Women MPs Group and Young MPs Group.
