Prima Minister Mustafa: Kosovo institutions have fulfilled all the requirements and recommendations for visa liberalization

Pristina, 11 March 2016

Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, during the meeting held today with representatives of institutions responsible for implementation of the recommendations for visa liberalization, said that Kosovo institutions have fulfilled all the requirements and recommendations of the EC.

“I am pleased today, and with responsibility I can say that the institutions of Kosovo have fulfilled all the requirements and recommendations regarding visa liberalization. Also, I am pleased to note that through this the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo also exercise their right of free movement, which the right unfortunately did not use only the citizens of our country in the Western Balkans ” said Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Mustafa praised the work and coordination of duties between institutions. “We worked with great commitment in all the recommendationsthat remained to be filled, those regarding the law enforcement, which are related to the Judicial Council, respectively the pillar of justice, even those dealing with the Prosecutorial Council and State Prosecutor, those dealing with the Ministry of Interior and municipalities, for which we have coordinated activities, even those dealing with public procurement related to the PPRC, with the Review Body on Public Procurement and I think that in this regard we have achieved a lot, “said the Prime Minister, adding that in addition to preparing personnel was enabled the possibility to apply electronic procurement from the beginning this year, and by 15 the Public Procurement Review Body will be completed and in full composition.

Prime Minister Mustafa also said that the issue of the Ombudsman is resolved and also all preparations regarding border demarcation with Montenegro have been made.

“The work of the State Commission is approved, will be an international commission which once again will reassess the work, in terms of respecting the procedures of border demarcation, but also the respect of valid documents regarding border demarcation, in order to remove all doubts and suspicions of everyone in Kosovo and after to be ratified by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo in a certain moment, “said Prime Minister Mustafa.

Thanking the representatives of the institutions for the work done, Prime Minister Mustafa said that the achievements will be presented to the committee which will be in Kosovo next week, expressing his belief that it would be the last commission and final in this very important process .

“The process becomes even more important now when we dealing with the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement which will come into force on April 1 this year, because it will enable our citizens, our businesses to move freely within the European Union, to develop economic and trade cooperation with European businesses, which could not be made in full if there would be no visa liberalization. I consider this as an important step regarding the European and Euro-Atlantic and also as an important step to reflect the responsibility of institutions of Republic of Kosovo, meeting all conditions, because in this case we are not dealing only with meeting formal conditions for liberalization, but we deal with a commitment of the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo to strengthen the rule of law and democracy in our country, because all these are part of the functioning of the rule of law and our democracy, “said Prime Minister Isa Mustafa.

Minister of European Integration, Bekim Çollaku, said the evaluation mission of experts from the member states of the European Union and officials of the European Commission will be in Kosovo on 17 and 18 March to verify the actual situation on the ground regarding the fulfillment of the eight latest recommendations which remained open from the last report of the European Commission, published in December last year.

“You know very well what are those eight recommendations that in this report was considred as open and which we were ask to work more in order to be fully completed,” said Minister Colaku, highlighting one by one the eight recommendations that have figured in the last EC regarding the fulfillment of criteria for visa liberalization.

Further, the Minister of European Integration, said that experts will come from EU member states and officials who will accompany the EC mission, will conduct meetings with officials of the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo. “This visit of the evaluation mission and your meetings with these experts are of vital importance for us and for the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, because we expect that this will be the last mission because actually we thought that there is no no need in December to have another evaluation mission. However, though you know very well that in case of Kosovo, the European Commission and European Union member states are showing extremely strict, stricter than anyone else so far. And precisely with the request of member states has come to this new mission, but we have no reason to be worried about the establishment of the mission. Actually we are happy that finally after a delay of several months, I can say that the European Commission will send a mission of experts. You know that
we have submitted input officially on January 15 the European Commission to meet all the criteria set by a guideline and today I have submitt it a recent report, so that the mission of experts have the latest input in order that when they come to Kosovo to know exactly what we have done, “said Minister Çollaku, expressing conviction that this positive report should be based on arguments and facts.

Minister Collaku also stressed that this mission will precede the visit of Commissioner Avramopoulos in Kosovo, who, as per Mr. Çollaku when he arrive in Kosovo will show exactly when will be given a positive recommendation by the EU Commission on visa liberalization.

Last modified: August 11, 2022