Kosovo and Denmark are facing a possible renegotiation of an agreement on the lease of prison places, after the original agreement did not receive enough support in Kosovo’s parliament. The agreement, which would have allowed Denmark to lease 300 prison places in the Gjilan prison in Kosovo for deported foreigners, fell on Thursday when it only received 75 of the necessary 80 votes. The lack of approval has created uncertainty about the future of the agreement, and according to Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Justice, Blerim Sallahu, there is now a need to look at how to proceed with a new version of the agreement. “We will have to negotiate with Denmark on whether we should continue with this version of the agreement, or how to proceed in the future,” Sallahu stated to Radio Free Europe.
Eugen Cakolli, program manager at Transparency International Kosovo, explained that the agreement is now legally “dead” and cannot be reconsidered in its current format. This creates a need for renegotiation if the Kosovo government wants to try to get the agreement through parliament again. This political deadlock has been a long time coming, and the opposition in Kosovo has blocked the adoption of all international agreements, requiring a two-thirds majority in parliament. Although the largest opposition party signaled a willingness to support more international agreements on Wednesday, the prison agreement with Denmark was not among the ten that received approval.
Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard has not made any further comments on the situation since the agreement fell. The agreement was originally signed in April 2022 by then-Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup and was budgeted at 1.5 billion kroner over ten years. It is now expected that Danish and Kosovar authorities will initiate a new round of negotiations to see if a solution can be found that can gain sufficient support in Kosovo’s parliament.