On April 28, Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) – in joint cooperation with Institute GAP and Prishtina Institute for Political Studies (PIPS) – held a Press Conference to present the results on the performance of the Kosovo institutions in achieving the objectives set by the European Reform Agenda (ERA) for year 2017. The results presented during the conference are part of a year-long monitoring process conducted by the above-mentioned organizations, by thoroughly assessing the performance of each institution involved in the process and their performance towards achieving the objectives set by ERA.  The European Reform Agenda represents a high-level dialogue between Kosovo and the European Union, which aims to accelerate the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) by prioritizing some of the most challenging areas. In order for Kosovo to utilize the economic benefits that the SAA offers, institutions need to undertake urgent economic and rule of law reforms. Furthermore, there is a need of a higher commitment by the Kosovo political spectrum in order for these reforms to create more realistic opportunities for the entire society.

Overall, the monitoring results show that the implementation of the Action Plan for ERA remains quite low and that Kosovo institutions have proven to lack serious commitment in implementing the objectives deriving from this Action Plan. Out of 142 objectives that ERA entails, only 39% of them have been fully completed, 49% are partially completed, while other 14% remain uncompleted.

When analyzed pillar by pillar, the results show that  fight against corruption and organized crime, as well as the independence, accountability and efficiency of judiciary remain among the main challenges of the first pillar. In addition, low development of export capacities, informal economy and the improvement of the doing business environment and investment climate remain key challenges for the second pillar. While, lack of employment opportunities, especially for young people and women, as well as low quality of the education system and development of better curricula and vocational trainings, remain some of the most problematic reforms pertaining to the third pillar.

Having said the above, the data deriving from the assessment shows that, in general, Kosovo institutions are clearly lacking behind in implementing the objectives set by ERA, mainly due to the lack of serious commitment to the process by prioritizing it, improving coordination among relevant institution, and what is more, increasing the political will to commit in further progressing to implement the reforms set by ERA.

The Monitoring Matrix can be downloaded here.

Venue: Group for Legal and Political Studies Office.