On October 21, Group for Legal and Political Studies held a Press Conference on the topic: “EC Country Report for Kosovo 2021: Stagnation or not?”, 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. The 2021 report covers the performance of two different governments, starting with the Hoti government, and continues with the latest Kurti II.

 According to our analysis, the EC Country Report 2021, yet again, does not bring any novelties in the overall assessments of Kosovo’s readiness in fulfilling the objectives and requirements necessary for its EU integration path, and in general, it marks limited progress in most areas. Overall, the 2021 report marks minor progress in certain areas, but that does not pose any fundamental success for country’s integration aspirations. In that order, the report notes some positive developments in the fields of public procurement, statistics, fight against corruption and financial control.

However, the report places major concern on Kosovo’s limited progress in further implementing some of the key reforms related to the integration process, such as: rule of law, public administration reform, education reform, fight against high informality, and efforts to combat organized crime and corruption, among others.  In general, there are two key factors that lead to poor results, including aggravated situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, but mostly the lack of political stability with special emphasis on the first half of the reporting period. Further, the report notes that the newly established Kurti II government prioritizes pandemic management and its consequences, the fight against corruption, and includes an ambitious plan for long-term socio-economic reforms.

In a more positive light, the report acknowledges the government’s commitment to approve the second phase of the European Reform Agenda (ERA II) as well as the National Plan for the Implementation of the SAA (NPISAA), both of these strategic documents already approved by the government. With their approval, the EU noted government’s commitment to make progress on the integration path, considering it as a renewal of the country’s efforts towards reforms related to the integration process. Further, there is an increased emphasis on the fact that the obligations deriving from the Stabilization and Association Agreement must be fulfilled within the given timeframes.

Even this year, Kosovo unfortunately does not stand out for any deep structural reforms for which desirable results have been achieved as is the case with the other countries of the region. Most Western Balkans countries were congratulated for at least one deep reform process during this reporting period, but such an assessment is not evident for Kosovo.

GLPS calls upon the government of Kosovo for an increased institutional commitment, political willingness and concrete efforts to ensure better inter-institutional coordination to achieve concrete results in some of the flagship reforms such as rule of law, fight against corruption and organized crime, economic development, public administration reform and education. Lastly, higher institutional commitment is needed to fulfill the objectives deriving from ERA II and NPISAA.

Conference participants:

Ms. Njomza ARIFI – Programme Manager at GLPS;

Mr. Arber FETAHU – Research Fellow at GLPS.

Venue: GLPS Offices (Str. Rexhep Luci, 16/1, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo)