On October 7, Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) held a Press Conference on the topic: “EC Country Report for Kosovo 2020: Little or no progress at all?” held in Prishtina. Since 2012, GLPS has committed in systematic and ad-hoc monitoring of the overall Kosovo’s progress in meeting the Enlargement criteria. The EC Country Report is one of the instruments through which GLPS conveys the assessment of the Kosovo’s path towards EU integration. The 2020 Country Report for Kosovo is not a novelty in terms of the overall progress and challenges encountered, and as such, we believe that this report will be similarly neglected by the government, as have been the previous ones in the last 10 years.

According to Ms. Loxha-Stublla, the Executive Director at GLPS, the 2020 EC Country Report for Kosovo didn’t note any serious progress towards the EU Integration process, clearly showing that this government is politically incapable and lacks willingness to address the key reforms to align with the EU standards. “This year’s report does not identify any major reform or initiative that has been undertaken by the government and that is applauded by the European Commission. This shows that the government continues to exercise a mandate that is rather interested to maintain a status quo, than committing to pushing forwards public policies that would eventually improve the overall citizens’ wellbeing”, stated Ms. Loxha-Stublla.

On the other hand, Ms. Arifi, the Programme Manager at GLPS, stated that the EC Country Report for 2020 reveals a major concerning lack of inter-institutional coordination, with ministers employing individual approach that leads to totally uncoordinated efforts in practice. On another note, she stated that the Assembly of Kosovo is barely functioning due to the lack of quorum and continues to be subject to deep political divisions. As a result, the parliament is unable to properly oversee the government and to support fundamental institutional reforms.

Overall, the EC Country Report did not applaud Kosovo for a significant progress in any particular reform, which is not the case with the countries of the region. In most countries of the Western Balkans, the report notes actual progress in a particular major reform for which these countries were congratulated, while for Kosovo this does not stand.

Venue: Group for Legal and Political Studies Office (Str. “Rexhep Luci”, 16/1, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo)