TrainingBIRN Summer School BIRN Network About us
BIRN Newsletters
You can subscribe free of charge to Balkan Insight, BIRN's weekly
online publication analysing and investigating important developments in
the region.
Subscribe
21 07 2011 Life in Kosovo broadcast a debate on the EU progress report for 2011 and expectations about what its findings will be.
Among the questions discussed during the debate were: How different will the progress report for 2011 look compared to that of last year? Did Kosovo meet the obligations and recommendations in last year’s report? Has the Kosovo Assembly played its role in the planned integration processes? Who is to blame for not passing the laws proposed, the government or the Assembly?
To discuss these and related issues, journalist Muhamet Hajrullahu invited the following guests to the studio:
Vlora Çitaku, Minister for European Integration;
Lutfi Haziri, head of the Committee for European Integration;
Ylli Hoxha, executive director of the Foreign Policy Club; and
Jehona Lushaku, a professor at the University of Prishtina.
At the beginning of the debate, Ms. Çitaku said that the progress report cannot be expected to be better, given the work that has actually been done since last year. “Kosovo has not had enough time to identify and address the challenges that emerged from last year's progress report.
Still, the progress report is just a package of reforms, a list of obligations and recommendations that we should follow carefully,” she added. As for the integration process, she said that “it is an internal dynamic for our country, rather than an external process.”
Mr. Haziri said that integration is the only process in Kosovo on which there is political consensus. “We are convinced that the issue of budgetary approval and the agreement with the IMF will be negatively reflected in the progress report for this year. In the eyes of the European Commission, Kosovo is different from other countries in the region, although the evaluation criteria remain the same for all Balkan countries,” he added said.
“There is no cooperation between the Kosovo Assembly and the government; indisputably, this affects the whole integration process. It is true that the progress report also evaluates the implementation of law. However, laws should first be approved by the assembly, so that the government can implement them,” said Ms. Lushaku.
In contrast to the usual nature of these debates, Mr. Hoxha lambasted Kosovo's government by talking in a satirical way about the 'achievements' reflected in the progress report for last year. According to him, “these stagnations in the important processes for Kosovo will be reflected even more negatively in the progress report for 2011.”
After the debate, Life in Kosovo broadcast a report by journalist Edona Musa, showing why the workers who clean the city of Vitia did not receive money from the pensions trust.
Closing the show was the 'Youth in Kosovo' section, in which young people spoke about school trips and their dissatisfaction about the fact that these are no longer being organised.
Click here to watch the report
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
Komentari:
Nema komentara.