26th of December 2018

Head local and executive institutions have still not unified their actions in between themselves for the enforcement of law and order in the urban aspect in Prizren, as in the center protected by law, so too in the other parts of the city.

While the local authorities have expressed their concern on the one-sided interventions of MMPH based on the decisions made by the Executive of Prizren, in the other side multiple times QRTK has reacted in Prizren, as a body of MKRS, claiming that the Municipality of Prizren doesn`t take consideration on the legal dispositions regarding the interventions and work on the Historic Center of the city.

Meanwhile the Task Force, which assembles these institutions in one place and not only, created since 2014, to deal with the illegal constructions in the Historic Center of Prizren, throughout years hasn’t showed any kind of notable efficiency, enabling so the continuing of the institutional non-coordination regarding the protected area of the city.

Earlier this year, the Prizren Municipality, respectively the Inspections Directorate has reacted on the claim that some decisions of the Legal Office of the Directorate for the Environment and Spatial Planning are one-sided and protect the interest of the party that has broken the law and because they`re non-applicable and harm the public interest. According to this response, the legal Office of MMPH has intervened in a couple of cases where the Municipality has tried to execute the law and order in the construction sector, enabling the parties to continue their activities in opposition with the effective legislation.

Based on the provided information from the officials of the Municipality of Prizren, such a case has occurred in a construction in the Historic Center of Prizren, in another case in a construction in the "Jeni Mahalla" neighborhood and two other cases in the constructions in the "Tirana" street.
 
But, parallely the Prizren Municipality was accused for legal violation by the officials of MKRS, separately regarding the activities in the Historic Center of Prizren. MKRS has assessed that the year 2018 has been led by asset damage of cultural heritage as a result of the absence of law enforcement for TK and QHP by the Municipality of Prizren. According to MKRS, the Urbanism Directorate, even though based on the legal dispositions for QHP (Historic Center of Prizren), is obligated to deliver to QRTK in Prizren and the Council for Cultural Heritage the requests for urban permits, projects, constructions, demolitions, for the change of their destination, the realization of temporary activities or any other kind of change within the Historic Center of Prizren. The same one has skipped these procedures many times, damaging the assets of cultural heritage in the Historic Center. This directorate has evaluated that the Municipality, surpassing the authorizations, has undertaken actions for intervention within QHP, changing the infrastructure without the consent of the  institutions responsible for cultural heritage. In this case, MKRS has requested that all the interventions in the QHP be in full coordination with QRTK in Prizren and in compliance with the dispositions of the Law for the Historic Center in Prizren and the Law for Cultural Heritage.

EC Ma Ndryshe considers that this situation won`t benefit Prizren, since besides the non-coordination we also have to deal with irreverence for the executive legislation. Such a thing challenges the aspect of law and urban order enforcement. That`s why EC invokes the Prizren Municipality , and all the forementioned directorates to undertake initiatives for the coordination of actions, with the purpose of enforcing the urban order and law. Both the local and executive governments should make efforts in effectuating the legislation, unifying the procedures and better coordination, with the purpose of preserving the values and public interest in Prizren.