Activities of Public Document Access Week Continue

The Agency for Information and Privacy is holding a roundtable discussion with the Mayors of the Republic of Kosovo, Deputy Mayors, and municipal representatives.

The proceedings were opened by the Commissioner for Information and Privacy, Ms. Krenare Sogojeva-Dërmaku, who stated: “Local administration is the first address where citizens turn to for information, and beyond requests for access to public documents, transparency and accountability are crucial to ensuring public responsibility for all public officials.”

Commissioner Sogojeva-Dërmaku called on municipalities to fulfill their legal obligations for proactive access and to simultaneously implement the Test of Harm and Public Interest. She also expressed the Agency’s readiness to provide support to ensure citizens’ rights to access public documents. In particular, she emphasized that the proactive and self-initiated publication of documents by municipalities remains one of the demands—equally important and reasonable—for enhancing communication efficiency with citizens, the media, and non-governmental organizations, as interested parties seeking information from municipalities.

Commissioner Sogojeva-Dërmaku highlighted that among the competencies of municipalities, as defined by the Law on Local Self-Government, one of the important obligations is the exercise of public functions while ensuring transparency and accountability. These requirements also stem from the Law on Access to Public Documents. Therefore, in order to increase work efficiency in relation to legal obligations and transparency, the Agency calls on municipalities to strengthen transparency through the proactive publication of public documents.

The Director of Democratization of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Pascale Roussy, emphasized that access to public documents is a fundamental right that enhances transparency and also empowers democratic processes. Reaffirming the OSCE’s commitment to support such future initiatives, she presented the Guide for Municipal Officials on the Protection of Personal Data and Access to Public Documents, developed by the Agency in close collaboration with the OSCE.

On the second day of the Public Document Access Week, the importance of transparency and accountability was addressed by the Mayors of Kosovo’s municipalities: Ramiz Lladrovci from the Municipality of Drenas, Qemajl Aliu from the Municipality of Shtime, Kadri Rrahimaj from the Municipality of Kamenica, and Ruzhi Shehu from the Municipality of Junik. They presented their achievements and challenges in fulfilling the legal obligations of the Law on Access to Public Documents. Comparative reports on complaints submitted to the Agency for Information and Privacy and monitoring of proactive publication were presented by the General Director of the Agency, Lumnije Demi, and Arbëri Hiseni, Head of the Division for Review of Complaints for Access to Public Documents.