Home > 6 Political parties > KOSOVO - Kosovo - Opinion on the “draft law on amending and supplementing the Law no. 03/l-174 on the Financing of Political Entities (Amended and Supplemented by the Law no. 04/l-058 and the Law no. 04/l-122) and the Law no. 003/l-073 on General Elections
 
 
 
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Paragraph 21
 

Some of the rapporteurs’ interlocutors were critical about the fact that the amended definition includes the payment of party debts and they favoured an outright prohibition of such payments. They stated that such payments might create conditions for perverse effects and undermine the independence of political entities. The Venice Commission acknowledges that such a prohibition – which for systematic reasons would be better placed in other provisions of the LFPE, i.e. those which limit or prohibit certain funding sources (such as Article 5) – might indeed have some benefits. However, in the absence of any international standards it refrains from making a recommendation in this respect. As far as “profits through loans” are concerned, their inclusion in the definition of a contribution is welcome and in line with international standards. As the Guidelines make it clear, “loans which are granted at particularly advantageousconditions or even possibly written-off by the creditor should in principle be treated as a form of in-kind or financial contribution” and in case that a loan is not reimbursed (partly or in whole) by the party or candidate themselves, but by a third person, “the loan also becomes a form of contribution”. It is thus “important that rules on transparency deal consistently with this form of resources.” In accordance with the Commission’s previous pronouncements on this issue, “records should also be kept of loans and debts of political parties, and published”. For this purpose, it would be advisable to supplement Article 15, paragraph 3 of the LFPE so as to explicitly require loans to be listed in the party’s annual financial reports with terms and conditions detailed.