The Forum for Parliamentary Transparency was established on May 4th 2015, the same day the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo formally endorsed the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness. The Forum on Parliamentary Transparency comprises of members of the Assembly and representatives of domestic civil society organizations to serve as an advisory body to the Assembly and to develop an Action Plan with measures required to gradually reach the transparency standards set forth in the Declaration.
The Declaration presents a set of normative recommendations on the openness of parliamentary information that has been endorsed by 140 civil society organizations and parliaments from 75 countries, including the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED) and the Institute for Advance Studies (GAP). This Declaration is a call to action, but also serves as a basis for dialog between Parliaments and Civil Society Organization to advance parliamentary openness, and to ensure that this openness leads to grater citizen engagement, more responsive representative institutions and ultimately a more democratic society.
Initially, the Forum mandated a small working group comprised of Assembly staff, representatives of domestic CSOs and NDI to conduct an assessment on where the Kosovo Assembly stands against the transparency and openness benchmarks set forth in the Declaration. Besides key findings and description of the compliance with the 44 indicators, the working group agreed to put forward specific recommendations with measures that need to be undertaken to ensure compliance. The Baseline Assessment was introduced to and approved by the Forum, opening the way for development of the Action Plan for Parliamentary Transparency.
Through series of working sessions, the working group managed to develop the framework of the Action Plan for Parliamentary Transparency, which was introduced in the regional conference “Open Parliament-Engaged Citizens”[1] organized by NDI WBSLI in cooperation with the Parliament of Slovak Republic, in February 2016. Four member of the Forum from Kosovo Assembly discussed with other participant’s global trends in parliamentary openness, and showcased recently adopted legislative openness action plans. As a follow up, the Working Group finalised Kosovo Action Plan for an open and transparent Assembly (2016-2020), which has been endorsed by the Forum and launched on September, 15, 2016 during the International Day of Democracy.
With the endorsement of the Declaration, and the development of the Action Plan for an open and transparent Assembly, Kosovo became a leader in the region.
[1] The event brought together representatives of parliaments and civil society sector from Western Balkan countries, Georgia, Ukraine, Latvia, Slovakia and Czech Republic.
