“Freedom House 2022” report: Corruption continues to be widespread in Kosovo

Freedom House's report stresses that political interference in the judiciary remains a major problem, and also widespread corruption in the judiciary that negatively affects its independence.

The report stresses that prosecutors and courts remain sensitive to political interventions and corruption by powerful political and business elites, thus undermining the regular legal process.

According to this report, corruption and the capture of the state are widespread and the institutional framework for fighting them is weak.

<x0).Autorities have shown little commitment to prosecuting high-level corruption, and when senior officials are prosecuted, sentences are rare.

Throughout 2021, the newly elected government attended several reforms aimed at fighting corruption and organised crime; the administration committed itself to creating new judicial verification mechanisms and proposed drafting legislation that would enable the government to seize the newly acquired “wealth acquired unwarrantably”, the report further stresses.

In the organisation's report “Freedom House” for Countries in Transition, published Wednesday, Kosovo is again listed in the hybrid/transitional governance group. On a scale of between 1 and 7 points, where 1 is the lowest degree of democracy, according to this year's report, Kosovo scored progress from 3.14 points to 3.25.