The 15th meeting of the Kosovo Stabilisation and Association Process Tracking Mechanism (STM) was held yesterday in Prishtina which focuses on the 2008 Progress Report on Kosovo. The report reviews Kosovo's progress in implementing European standards as regards political and economic criteria as well as its capacity to approximate to EU laws and regulations over the last year.

 

The meeting was opened by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi and EU Commissioner Pierre Mirel, Director for the Western Balkans at the Directorate-General Enlargement of the European Commission together with EUSR Pieter Feith and Delphine Borione for the EU Presidency.

The meeting allowed the two sides to discuss key challenges under the political, economic and European standards chapters. The Republic of Kosovo Government presented measures on how to address the challenges identified. The EU's commitment to Kosovo was reconfirmed by the launch of the preparations for the feasibility study that the Commission will present in autumn of 2009.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi emphasized that “European Integration is a long and challenging process, but the process itself is more important than the act of membership because during this process we are reforming and we are embracing the democratic values and at the same time, we are improving the quality of life for the citizens of Kosovo."

Mr Pierre Mirel underlined that: "this year Kosovo has seen much more public debate about he Commission's progress report. We see this as a positive sign. The annual reporting exercise is done for Kosovo's sake and the whole population should benefit from it. We are atisfied that the Kosovo authorities have proposed to implement concrete measures to tackle the findings of the report." He reiterated the European Commission's support to osovo and its intentions to work together with the Kosovo authorities in the preparations ofthe feasibility study.

Both sides agreed that the newly created Agency for the Coordination of Development and European integration will play the key role in coordinating the government's European Policies and the donor contribution to Kosovo's progress.

The STM is the framework under which the European Commission and the Kosovar administration regularly discuss technical and policy issues in relation to the European genda. STM plenary meetings are held twice a year, complemented by STM sectoral meetings. The launch of the preparations for the feasibility study marks a new stage in Kosovo's progress within the EU's policy for the Western Balkans.