Annual Meeting of the IPA Joint Monitoring Committee

The meeting was co-chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of European Integration, Mr. Demush Shasha and the Director for Western Balkan of the European Commission Directorate General for Enlargement, Mr. Jean Eric Paquet.

The meeting discussed  IPA`s contribution to the public administration reform, in light of public administration scholarship program, Young Cell Scheme, as well as the project on establishing the Integrated Strategic Planning System.

In relation to the Rule of Law sector, the European Commission expressed serious concerns regarding the delays on functioning of the Palace of Justice, therefore the EC representative stated that they will consider rigorous measures toward Kosovo, in case Kosovo`s institutions fail to do so.

Kosovo is already part of EU`s program for cross-border cooperation, and in this light, the participants discussed the implementation of EU`s assistance in order to improve the lives of the citizens residing in border regions. More specifically, cooperation programs with Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia were also discussed.

European Commission presented, in details, the new IPA programming approach 2014-2020. In this regard, EC introduced to Kosovo`s institutions the future steps in programming of the assistance and the criteria’s for direct budget support. Furthermore, the plan for drafting the National Economic Reform Programs was also discussed.

Ministry of European Integration informed the participants on the progress achieved in relation to drafting of the Sector Strategic Planning Documents in rule of law, agriculture and energy sector.

Also, the meeting discussed Kosovo`s experience in the Western Balkan Investment Framework. The participants highly praised WBIF`s contribution in supporting Kosovo aiming to improve the situation within the key WBIF sectors, such as; energy, environment and transport. The participants agreed that the institutions should start their work toward drafting the Infrastructure Investment Planning Document.