Alarm: Kosovo with serious stalemate in European reforms

The Pristina Institute for Political Studies, the Group for Jury and Political Studies, and the GAP Institute consider there is serious impasse in relation to implementation of reforms within the agenda for European reforms.

Instituts have come up with monitoring reports for the January-September period, where they estimate that greater seriousness is needed from competent bodies in meeting the criteria, as they say it slows Kosovo's process towards European integration.

The Group for Juridical and Political Studies, the GAP Institute and the Pristina Institute for Political Studies, under the project the agenda's monitoring mechanism for European reform, financed by the Netherlands Embassy in Kosovo, have been monitoring for 9 months the achievements of institutions responsible for implementing measures released by the agenda for European reforms.

At a conference with journalists, they have said the measures they have monitored are measures issued by “Era1” that have not been completed since 2016, and measures stemming from the prime minister's decision in November 2017.

Visar Jamaica from PlPS also highlighted the non-transparency of institutions to share with them the necessary information.

The Pristina Institute for Political Studies, the Group for Jury and Political Studies, and the GAP Institute consider there is a serious impasse in relation to implementation of reforms within the agenda for European reforms. Of the 29 key priorities, which are meant to be met, in total, only 5 of them have been fulfilled overall, and that is a serious impasse. Kosovo institutions are now a late year and still have a lot of work to do”, he said.

The greatest increase is highlighted in the education sector, in which only 28 percent of total actions have been completed. Among all the surveyed ministries, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology remains the worst in implementing previous reforms.

The doctor from GLPS said that in monitoring good governance and rule of law, 62 per cent of the actions have been completed, 24 per cent partially complete and 14 remain incomplete.

We have these 11 measures divided into three categories, in rule of law, in electoral reform and public administration reform. As for the first column, the impasses continue to be the same as in the first six months, as are the adoption of legislation that makes the suspension or departure of public officials compulsory, the adoption of the Law on Judges and Prosecutors, auditing and publishing financial reports for 2017, adoption of the legal package for public administration reform, and the legal package for electoral reform. What needs to be mentioned is the penal code that's been passed by the government, but there's still stuck in the Parliament. So, one of the reasons it causes and continues to be problematic in the implementation or completion of these promises is the impasse in the UN”, she said.

While Nora Jusuf from the GAP Institute indicated that the impasses are almost the same as those of the first quarter.

The “Nations also remain much the same as those in the first six months, is restructuring the Investment Agency, and supporting companies in Kosovo, K The IESA, then we have the disapproval of the inspection bill, the disapproval of the law on efficiency, therefore the creation of the energy efficiency fund, and in the field of energy there are no implementation of agreements, the COST agreement on Serbia's EMAS, due to the neglect of the opposing side, however this has not been reached<1>, she said.

According to the report, some of the main and most emphasisable impasses in the education sector are not the establishment of the agency for curriculums, standards and evaluations; non-venting core curriculums for education and professional skills; and not the beginning of their piloting phase.