Rizvanolli: Dialogue with Serbia is on top of our problems

Miss Minister, you participated this week in the Energy Dialogue in Berlin. It was the first time you attended and immediately received a personal praise from Minister Baerbox. Did you expect it?

Artane Rizvanolli: It was a surprise, actually. Kosovo was the only state she mentioned specifically: The investment in Kosovo, which was the biggest post-war investment in the energy sector, by a Kosovo-German consortium, welcoming me as Kosovo's minister and calling for experts and investors who were in the hall from over 50 countries to assist Kosovo in its energy transition and security. It was truly satisfying and honor, that Kosovo was in the main focus, to say, in the speech of Minister Baherbox.

The world is currently facing an energy crisis. How affected is Kosovo by it and how prepared to cope?

We have a destiny in misfortune, that we don't use gas. On the other hand, as a state, we face this unprecedented crisis at a time when for 40 years we have not had serious investments in the energy sector. For our supply safety we must be based on 40-year-old thermal power plants, which certainly at any moment can have unforeseen decay, which costs us a lot.

And that's not one thing that can be fixed overnight. But what's important is that we have a clear vision of where we're going. For the first time, our energy strategy aims at defuelling by 2050, in line with the green European agenda, and for the first time we take into account the impact of carbon tax on the implications of the European market and the implications it will have on the energy sector of Kosovo. We aim to be ambitious in terms of renewable energy sources, which the German state also has much interest in helping us.

What help do you expect from the German state?

We need both investments, both for expertise and that's what Minister Baerbox expressed in her opening speech. We also need technical support and financial support in the field of energy. Germany has been key to the energy transition. The main projects that we have, starting earlier in Selac Park, which Mrs. Baerbock along with Prime Minister Kurti inaugurated a month ago, we have the newly launched project with the German government and the German KFW Bank for central solar heating in the town of Pristina, which will generate energy generation for heating from solar energy, but also the expansion of the network, with 12 thousand households benefiting from the project. Also nearing the location of this project, Kosovo's first solar park will be built on land owned by KEK. So, within two or four years, we will have the first public-owned projects from renewable energy sources. And I believe that we will be able to fulfill Mrs. Baerbox's wish, so that on her next visit, we can open up a joint Kosovo-German investment.

What is the economic benefit Kosovo can have from dialogue -- that is, from the rapid normalisation of relations with Serbia.

Of course there are aspects that can facilitate our lives, but dialogue with Serbia is not on the top-list of our problems, or rather our solutions. Of course, we have the energy problem in the north, which we have been working for 23 years now. We await the results of the dialogue in this regard. We as a state of Kosovo have done our best. I take the opportunity to thank the Energy Regulatory as well as some experts from Kosovo and the diaspora, who have consulted during these negotiations, who have been very insistent on maintaining the interest of the state of Kosovo in a very constructive way, which has also been recognised by the EU, and now we expect to see how it will develop further.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, during the inauguration of the wind park at the beginning of March 2022 in Baygorea.

The panel where you participated in Dallog for power transformation. You talked about gender policy. What is the connection between the feminist or gender policy (gender) and the energy economy?

In fact, it is a new topic on which not only us, like Kosovo, but other countries around the globe have recently begun to become aware. For example, one aspect is that women are the main consumers of energy and disproportionally carry the burden of household chores. And they make many decisions in the way of energy consumption. But they are represented in the energy sector. In Kosovo we have representation of women about half the global average. And this is something we're aiming to change and deal with in recent years. / DW