EU criteria that still remains incomplete by Kosovo

Meeting the last two criteria, out of the 95 criteria required by the European Union, for abolishing the visa regime for Kosovo, still remain a challenge for the country's institutions. But, though ratification of the Agreement on Marking the Border Line with Montenegro, as one of the last two criteria, has been more presented as a problematic challenge, yet Kosovo is still far away from meeting the other criteria, fighting corruption and strengthening rule of law and order, assessing developments in the country.

Artan Demhay from the Organisation for Democracy, Anti-Corruption and Dinjitie “Arise”, speaking of Radio Free Europe, estimates that fighting corruption, which comes as the European Commission's request, is the key condition Kosovo institutions must meet to achieve to visa liberalisation.

According to him, no concrete action or decision has yet been seen by prosecutors and courts, testifying to the fight against high-level corruption.

“Under that, I don't believe that we have managed to realise this condition, as the European Union has established. We know that the European Union has consistently talked about the low punishment measures our courts pronounce against corruption and organised crime. Finally, we had such a case in which, for a case of corruption for misusing thousands of euros, we found that they were given a conditional sentence for a year. It means, there has been the main point that the European Union has also requested independent investigations, but also merit decisions for key persons, who are corrupt or who are involved in organised crime”, Demhaja says.

Betim Musliu of the Kosovo Institute for Justice, which monitors cases of corruption in the justice system, tells Radio Free Europe that the research of this institute reveals that the fight against corruption is not taking place at all.

The fulfillment of this criterion is still nowhere in orbit. In fact, there is no high-profile pursuit of corruption and no judgment of these cases. Since there are no final judgments, we simply cannot talk about concrete results. There were also spectacles of the establishment of charges, but they ended up shy in courts. That's why Europe, but America, wants concrete results, because only in this way can this criterion be fulfilled”, Musliu points out.

Meanwhile, Demhasaj says it is evident that courts are procrastinating, dealing with corruption, the prosecutor and the police, and when they arrive in court, most of them are dismissed.

Even that part of the subjects being passed and examined in courts is receiving extremely low sentences or parole sentences. So the message we've been sending to the European Union, due to the condition for fighting corruption, I guess it shows that we're too far behind and we've pushed too far in this direction. Even if the terms of demarcation are passed in the Kosovo Assembly, I still consider it to be very problematic that we immediately get visa liberalisation, because we haven't done the job properly, but also the establishment of rule of law and order”.

By contrast, Musliu has stressed that fighting corruption in Kosovo, “is based on low and medium profile, while the high profile remains largely untouched”. As he has said, even “in cases where the charges are raised, mainly they are failed”.

According to data from the Kosovo Institute for Justice, during the first six months of this year, three charges against high profiles have been recorded, thus against two former mayors and a ministry. Against one former mayor of the municipality and the minister, the charges have been dismissed by the courts, as groundless, while against the other former mayor, procedures are still continuing.