Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration
Besnik Bislimi is the first deputy prime minister for European Integration, Development and Dialogue of the Republic of Kosovo. He was born on May 19, 1971 in Bukovik, Gjilan.
He studied Macroeconomic Analysis at the Faculty of Business Administration, University of Zagreb, Croatia from 1990 to 1994. He received his doctorate in Macroeconomics, with a special focus on Public Finance, at the University of Freiburg, Germany in 2005. In 2008, he attended post-doctoral studies in the United States of America, at the “Andrew Young School of Policy Studies” at the University of Georgia in Atlanta, as part of the Fullbright program.
Since 2010, he is a member of the VETËVENDOSJE Movement! where he led the Finance Committee. In December 2013, he held the position of Acting Director for Finance and Property in the Municipality of Pristina. In the parliamentary elections of 2014, he was elected a deputy of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, where he headed the Parliamentary Committee for Oversight of Public Finances.
From 2018 to 2022, he also held the position of first vice president of the largest political entity in the country, the VETËVENDOSJE Movement!. During the Kurti I Government, he also served as Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers.
Besnik Bislimi is a member of the American University in Kosovo, AUK, since 2004, where he has taught various subjects and courses such as Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Public Finance, Monetary Analysis and Policy and Economic Natural Resources.
Throughout his career he also worked as an assistant lecturer for Macroeconomics and Public Finance at the University of Freiburg in Germany; international expert in public finance for UNMIK; advisor for fiscal policies with GTZ; lecturer for Macroeconomics 1 and 2 in Veles, Macedonia as well as lecturer for Macroeconomics and Public Finance at the University of Pristina, Faculty of Business Administration and Faculty of Philosophy.
He has also served as a UNDP advisor on fiscal policies within the CBF project; advisor for several GIZ projects; a public finance expert in the FAO office in Kosovo; consultant, researcher, supporter and expert in projects such as: HLSP, Helvetas, OECD, Bertelsman Foundation.
He has knowledge and expertise in fiscal and monetary policies, labor market policies, fiscal decentralization, public debt, privatization and anti-corruption.