Remarks by Commissioner Várhelyi at the joint press conference with H.E. Ms Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, President of Kosovo*

Dear President,

first of all, thank you very much for hosting me in Kosovo.

I think it's fair to say, that we had a frank, open and fruitful discussion this morning, which I am really grateful for, and I think that we have touched upon all the elements of progress Kosovo has achieved in the past, and I think, if there is one clear message from the meeting we had, but also a very clear message coming always from Pristina and Kosovo, that is: that Kosovo is determined on its European path. We hear you loud and clear.

You have repeatedly shown your commitment not only in words, but also in joining us through clear commitments to our positions, when it comes to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, including introduction of sanctions and full alignment to our policies. This is very much valued and cherished in Europe.

Because of course, in the midst of the geopolitical challenges this war is causing, we have also some good news to share – because it is not only bad news that the world is creating. As the President already mentioned, from 1 January next year, Kosovo citizens will also be able to travel visa-free to the European Union. This is a long overdue promise from the European side, something that we have been able to deliver, together with the government of Kosovo, thanks to their commitment also to change things on the ground. Not only in commitment to European values but also to work with us, to convince also our Member States on an everyday basis that visa fee-free travel is also in our interest. So, I think this common success will be felt by everybody in the country and I do hope that it not only be felt but used to a large extent.

Now of course we also discussed the state of play when it comes to the reforms. This is one of the purpose of the visit. We are coming with the annual report this time of the year, we always reach out to our partners in the Western Balkans, in other candidate countries to discuss how far they have reached in the last year on delivering the reforms. I think that it is very important that reforms need to be not only continued but accelerated. We need to improve the implementation of the overall legal framework. But we also have to see the track record of all the reforms that have been done: so how do they work out in practice. This is also a critical element.

We touched upon, for example the judicial system because the overall administration of the judicial system continues to be slow, inefficient, vulnerable and there are cases of undue influence. I think we have agreed with Madam President that this is a major challenge to overcome, still. Therefore, we welcome the commitment of the government to improve the justice system in line, fully in line with the recommendations from the Venice Commission.

Kosovo also needs to work on the implementation of the legal framework in the fight against corruption. Strong political will is needed to address the systemic corruption and high-level corruption cases as well as we need final court decisions, an asset confiscation, meaning that the policy is being enforced fully with the full force of the law and corruption networks are dismantled. We welcome here as well the determination of the government, but now it is time to implement all the policies that they have designed.

It is equally important to continue the fight against organized crime. We see this Kosovo is at an early stage but took a number of successful operations involving cooperation with international partners, our Member States and also other bilateral cooperation and cross-border projects.

As regards the freedom of expression. Kosovo has a pluralistic media environment, however public smear campaigns, threats and physical attacks on journalists need to stop and we need everybody to work to protect the media from such campaigns.

We briefly touched upon also the economic situation because, of course, everybody is affected by the energy crisis. You have seen that Europe reached out to the entire region. We have already dispersed our €75 million energy support package to help the most vulnerable households and SMEs to cope with the rising energy prices, and we will continue to be on your side. We will continue to be ready to help.

We see that the economic rebound was very strong after the Covid-crisis, which was very good news, but now we see some weakening due to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, so we now need the government to tackle the structural challenges in the economy because Kosovo needs to boost its growth and competitiveness. There's a huge opportunity in front of Kosovo. It has a huge potential to become an investor's hub. Kosovo is strategically placed, but for that, we need to work together and create the right investors' climate, meaning also connectivity.

On our programs, Madam President already mentioned one of the programs that we're going to launch today, and that is a €6.5 million home affairs program that aims to increase Kosovo's capacity to fight against organized crime and through this program, we will also be able to enhance the investigative and operational capacities of the Kosovo police and Kosovo Academy of Public Safety, because they are the critical mass when it comes to fighting on the ground, organized crime, corruption terrorism, cyber security, forensic operations, border management and migration. They have a lot to do, and they need to have more means and we're ready to deliver these means also ourselves.

We will remain committed to help in Kosovo in every way we can, including our financial assistance. You have seen that from the 30 billion euros Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans, we have been mobilizing already substantial package of funding for Kosovo. Since 2021 we have already moved €312 million of grants to this country and we have altogether mobilized €635 million of investments through our means, through the Economic and Investment Plan, in Kosovo.

For this to be operational, for this to bring the added economic value and the growth potential that they were designed to deliver, we need the Common Regional Market to function. We encourage Kosovo to be the front runner also in this. You have been ratifying first the agreements reached in the Berlin process, but this process needs to go ahead. We need more areas where under EU standards we can deliver Europe to the Western Balkans much earlier.

Finally, we touched briefly on the on the dialog. We think that progress has been made in the last year. It is now essential that both parties deliver and implement the obligations without delay because we need to keep the momentum going, and we need to move forward with the implementation of it immediately. It's enough to quote the European Council conclusions from February this year, which says that the European Council urges both parties to implement fully and without conditions the obligations they committed to in the framework of the dialog, including the agreements from the years 2013 and 2015 to create an association community of Serb majority municipalities.

The purpose of my visit here is not to remind Kosovo or not only to remind Kosovo of this but also to put one additional element to the discussion that I hope will help even to accelerate implementation, and that is that we are ready on our side to provide targeted, additional, substantial economic investment program for the region most affected by the dialog and the region that should benefit from a successful dialog.

For that reason, we want to listen to you. We want to hear you what could create growth and jobs, and long-term prosperity in that region, where unemployment runs the highest in the continent and where social deprivation is one of the highest in Europe. So, Europe is here to ensure that the successful dialog will also mean success for the people for whom the dialog should bring results. Thank you very much.