Functional Review of the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning

goals in the field of spatial planning is a co-ordinated planning process between the central and local levels
by effective communication, assistance, consultations and decision-making. MESP should take a leading
role in the effective communication, co-ordination and implementation of urban/municipal development
plans. Another unavoidable role of the MESP is a compatibility review and verification of those plans with the
Spatial Plan of Kosovo.
Kosovo has one of the highest average population densities in Europe, close to 200 persons per square
kilometre. Considering the large portion of the country covered by mountainous, i.e. low density areas, the
economic activity is concentrated in few locations, where agricultural, mining, industrial and human
settlements make a dramatic pressure on the existing resources. A rational and democratic (participated)
management of the country space is a key condition for sustainable development.
During the post-conflict period Kosovo is facing an enormous extension of illegal construction and illegal
housing.
Projects currently implemented by EPAP 2009 in the housing sub-sector reflect the actual situation and bring
the proper response to the problematic illegal housing and informal settlement.
Recommendation III.10: Regularise informal settlements, include it into the municipal spatial and urban
plans and prevent future unlawful developments.
KOSOVO CADASTRAL AGENCY (KCA)
The Kosovo Cadastral Agency has been set up with the purpose of managing cadastre and land
registration in Kosovo. The KCA, though, has an ambiguous role of being a coordinating body rather than
providing direct management of the Municipal Cadastre Offices (MCO). In this perspective it is preferable
to have a land administration organization with the MCOs as an integral part of KCA. The result would be
a more consistent implementation of land administration policies than is currently the case, when the KCA
has to negotiate with all Municipalities about measures to be taken. With KCA responsible for MCOs a
clear accountability for land administration operations would be achieved.
The suggested core businesses in the KCA are cadastre registration, land registration, real property
valuation, geodesy and NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure). The KCA should at first concentrate
on the cadastre and land registration including the reconstruction work that is of importance for tenure
security and reliability of data in the registers. The Kosovo Cadastre and Land Information System
(KCLIS) should be developed into a unified system including cadastre data about land, buildings and
apartments, real property right, addresses, property values, land use and environmental restrictions for
multi-purpose use and hosted by the KCA.
The experts’ opinion on the transfer of the KCA in the MESP is mentioned in the previous section. We
would like just emphasize two important points:
Firstly the major advantage of having the environmental and spatial data under one organisation is
tha the decision making processes will be easier
Secondly it will be necessary to keep a degree of autonomy for the KCA within the MESP based on
the certain peculiarities of its business.
Detailed recommendations are provided in the separate Vertical Functional Review of the Kosovo
Cadastral Agency as well as in the well developed Business Plan for the Kosovo Cadastral Agency and
the Cadastral Sector in Kosovo 2009 – 2014.
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