Finland's Ambassador: Kosovo, Serbia reach final agreement

Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels is extremely important and as such should result in reaching an agreement whose support will be Finland.

So he stated in an interview for The KP, Finnish Ambassador to Kosovo Pia Sterinvall, where she stressed that this is one of the most important things the two countries should focus on.

According to her, the parties should concentrate on how to move forward.

I think it's one of the most important things we need to focus on right now. Here, you are very focused on what Serbia is doing and Serbia is focused on what you are doing. Instead, it would be far more important to focus on what you are doing and on how you are moving forward. However, this peace dialogue agreement is extremely important and we will support it. It takes a lot of effort to make this happen”, Sterernwal said.

Finland's ambassador said Kosovo has very good co-operation with its state, co-operation that comes each time by expanding.

I think we have very good relations with Kosovo. We have a lot of cooperation in different fields. At the moment we have about 10,000 Kosovars living in Finland and visiting Kosovo, because now, with Norwegian Air Flights, we have more and more Finnish tourists who are really interested in coming here to visit. Also, if I go back to time when you were negotiating peace, trying to find peace and then Mr. Ahtisaari, our president was here and many issues crossed his plans. And I think that from this moment on, the Finnish people have a very good view of Kosovo and are interested in seeing that you are heading towards a better future”, she said.

Sterernvall has come to Kosovo in February this year, but for this short time, he has visited a large number of municipalities. As it shows it will continue to meet with representatives of other municipalities to see closely the situation and progress marking the latter.

According to her, Kosovo has noted progress and can move ahead on its own without needing help. It shows that they have already focused on establishing reports among young people of both countries.

“We no longer help with development assistance because we see that Kosovo is already reliable and can move forward on its own. What we want to have is greater partnership. So we're working with young people, because I see young people here that they're great and are much more thirsty than Finnish youths, since they really want to do things. So we try to unite Finnish and Kosovo youth, we work to create more business relations which have already begun this year, because that's something we never had before. And we welcome co-operation with different universities. We have also met with the Jewish community and are trying to find their collaborators in Finland to work together. So we're following the political environment by doing these things. I still want to stress that we really want to work with young people, because Kosovo's youth are future”, the ambassador suggested.

Despite the potential it says to have looked to Kosovo youth, however, Styernvall stresses that the state of education in Kosovo leaves to be desired. According to her, the teacher's work is highly respected in Finland, but the same cannot be said of teachers in Kosovo. This, as she says, lacks the will to teach and educate children in Kosovo.

The economic situation is improving. However, as far as education is concerned, I have little hope because education is an area where you need a long - term commitment and it really takes a lot of money for Government to make it happen. And I haven't seen a strong commitment to moving forward in this direction, but I hope there will be. I know there are people who are really interested in improving this field”, she told Kosovo Press.

All in the end, Styernwell has also talked about the economic climate Kosovo offers for investors. And according to her, at this point there are certain restrictions due to the country's energy situation and corruption.

I think in some areas, the market is secure and improving every day since you are moving towards the European Union and after you commit to certain measurements. However, the danger exists. As you know, there is danger of corruption, the risk of lack of sufficient energy in the country. So it's a big risk for a company, especially if it's in production. Also, there is a lack of well-educated workforce and it can pose a risk. But I think it's a good place in the middle of Europe, near different areas as well as the cost here is lower than Finland and we're far away. So I don't see any reason why you don't do well or much better than (to succeed) at”, Styernwald said at the end.

The state of Finland, or the Finnish Embassy in Kosovo, has its focus on creating strong bridges of co-operation among businesses. While this is the first year that such projects come in the direction of increased co-operation, from which much is expected.

Otherwise, Finland became the 27th state to recognise Kosovo's independence on March 7th, 2008.