KOSOVO IN REGIONAL INITIATIVES: THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AND COORDINATION 31 pages, pdf  Download Back

KOSOVO IN REGIONAL INITIATIVES: THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AND COORDINATION

Publisher: Balkans Policy Research Group (BPRG)

Volume: 31 pages, pdf

Description:

Kosovo faces numerous challenges to represent itself and to participate in regional organizations and initiatives. Many of these challenges are political, a few others are practical and technical. Yet, there are feasible ways for Kosovo to navigate through them. That is by building a strong political will and a firm governmental commitment, and by establishing a solid internal institutional framework. Kosovo lacks a streamlined inter-institutional coordination and has not fully established a tracking and a follow-up mechanism for ensuring an effective coordination and implementation of the Western Balkans Six (WB6) regional cooperation agendas.

The regional cooperation of WB6 is built on the objective to boost cooperation and convergence among six countries, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with the European Union (EU). Good neighborly relations and regional cooperation is framed as a condition for the WB6 countries’ European path. The aftermath of Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008 and the launching of the Berlin Process in 2014 mark important milestones. Since then, many new regional initiatives have been launched, aiming at enhancing regional cooperation among countries in Western Balkans. Few other initiatives involve the wider geographic area of Southeast Europe. The EU continuously pushes the WB6 countries to partake and progress in these initiatives.

Moreover, the regional cooperation agendas are increasingly expanding. Once emerged as a “peace strategy” in the early 2000s; aimed at strengthening security in the region, it has now augmented into more than 40 initiatives underpinning cooperation in economic, societal, environmental and political dimensions. Migration, Asylum and Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI), Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Regional Youth Cooperation Organization (RYCO), Western Balkans Fund (WBF), Energy Community Secretariat (EnC), Transport Community Treaty (TcT), as well as the Berlin Process are some of the most notable organizations and initiatives which were created to operationalize cooperation among neighbors in the Western Balkans.