Kosovo leaders sign draft constitution
The Kosovo Constitutional Committee signed in Pristina on Monday the draft constitution, which determines Serbia's southern province as "an independent and sovereign state."
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Tuesday, April 08, 2008
"Today we are giving legitimacy to our act of declaration of the independent, sovereign and democratic Republic of Kosovo," Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said during the signing ceremony.
The draft constitution contains 40 chapters and 160 articles and defines Kosovo as a parliamentary republic, "strengthening the role of the president of the republic, who will also be the supreme commander of the future Kosovo army."
The draft says that Albanian and Serbian are the official languages in Kosovo.
The signing ceremony was attended by representatives of the Kosovo institutions, the EU and international high representative Pieter Feith and officials of international offices in Pristina.
Following a public debate, Feith on April 2 "approved the draft constitution", which should then be "verified and adopted" by the provisional Kosovo parliament and come into force on June 15.
