For the third day in a row, public and private transport companies in Prishtina have protested in front of the municipality, citing financial difficulties due to lack of budget allocations.

Municipal funds have not been allocated because the 2025 budget has yet to be approved, resulting in a freeze of revenues and own-source funds.

On Thursday, the Municipality of Prishtina called an extraordinary session of the Municipal Assembly to authorise the transfer of funds from 2024 to 2025 and to approve the budget for 2026.

The Municipality of Prishtina failed to approve its 2025 budget on time, despite several extraordinary sessions of the Municipal Assembly that were suspended due to lack of quorum. Because of these delays, the Ministry of Finance drafted its own version of the budget for the municipality, as permitted by the Law on Public Financial Management.

Opposition parties in the capital, Vetëvendosje, VV, and PDK boycotted the mayor’s calls for sessions, preventing the passing of the budget.

The situation further escalated due to the non-constitution of Kosovo’s Assembly, which blocked the approval of the state budget. Consequently, local budgets, like in Prishtina, which were late, were left unapproved.

Prishtina’s Mayor Përparim Rama accused the Ministry of Finance of unlawfully blocking the city’s own-source revenues, leaving the municipality unable to meet its financial obligations. “Our own-source revenues continue to remain blocked. This is a purely political blockade,” he said in a press statement on Tuesday, adding that about 35 million euros remain frozen, 25 million in local revenues and 10 million in government grants.

Rama said he requested urgent meetings with the Prime Minister and the acting Minister of Finance, but nothing has happened so far.

In September, Rama filed a constitutional complaint against the ministry of Finance over the budget issue.

Acting Minister of Finance Hekuran Murati rejected the accusations, arguing that:

Prishtina missed both the legal deadlines for submitting a draft budget—30 September and 31 October 2024.
“Any adjustment can now be made only through amendments to the Budget Law after the February 9 elections.”

“The municipality made ‘electoral decisions’ that created obligations without budgetary coverage,” Murati said.“LDK, Ramа’s party, failed to participate in the parliamentary session where the budgets for Prishtina, Gjilan and Zubin Potok could have been addressed. This is a political battle being fought at the expense of citizens,”  Murati added.

The financial paralysis has pushed “Trafiku Urban,” the public transport operator, and other private companies into operational collapse, halting all services, while their workers have been protesting in front of the Municipality since Monday, demanding salaries that have not been paid since July and for other obligations to be fulfilled, like the Municipality’s obligation to pay the companies’ fuel expenses.

Ilmi Gashi from the workers’ union explained that, “the Ministry allocated 3.2 million on Friday, but the Municipality could only allocate 680,000 for Trafiku Urban—not enough even to cover the 1 million fuel debt.”

According to Gashi, the Ministry said, “it would release funds if the Municipal Assembly approves the transfer of 2024 own-source revenues.”

The Law on Local Self-Government requires municipalities to submit draft budgets before 15 November—a deadline Prishtina exceeded.

Under the Law on Public Financial Management, if a municipality fails to submit a budget on time, the minister prepares a limited version that cannot exceed the previous year’s allocations.If the municipal assembly does not approve budget allocations by March 1 of the following year (in this case 2025), no spending is allowed by or on behalf of the municipality until approval is secured.

Prishtina’s 2025 budget failed to pass in both the Municipal Assembly and Kosovo’s Assembly.The municipality has also not approved its 2026 budget. As a result, financial restrictions have affected public services, capital projects, and public transport.