This is Kosovo!

#thisisKosovo in #Slovakia 9-15 Nov. #Week of #Kosovo #culture. @kfosi #connectingwitheurope. Come visit us. pic.twitter.com/Gl4inNMqC4

— Iliriana Kaçaniku (@Illyrianas) November 6, 2014

When David Beat Goliath, the Winds of Change Started Blowing

...The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind...

Bob Dylan, Blowing in the Wind

Kosovo’s winds of change have started to blow for real last Sunday. With the final results of the local elections being announced late in the evening, it became clear to all that Kosovars had opted to cast their votes for the long needed change. And with beliefs that the old and well-established parties and electorates cannot be beaten, yesterday proved that Kosovo has also Davids to beat Goliaths. The first round of elections on November 3rd, 2013 did not result with mayors in all municipalities of Kosovo. In twenty-five out of 38 tied results obliged the citizens to vote again on December 1st and decide for one of two top candidates.

And the voting we did. Though slightly less than in the first round, the 40% of voters who defeated the rainy and cold weather to fulfill their democratic obligation have cast the most important votes in post-war Kosovo. Although these were only municipal elections, though 6th in 14 years after the violent conflict, they have generated new power structures in the country and have loudly signaled that the citizens cannot wait any longer for everlasting promises with hardly any signs of their fulfillment. In 19 of 25 municipalities, the voters have decided for a new leadership, with two of them coming as a quite a surprise.


Surprise 1:
The capital of Prishtina has traditionally been led by the Lidhja Demokratike e Kosoves (LDK) since the end of the war. While their scoring on the national level had slightly declined during the last years, Prishtina remained a stronghold of the party. Many in Kosovo had at some point believed that whoever holds Prishtina will also establish the government. Though in the past local elections, the mayor was elected through the run-off, LDK candidates continuously came out as victors, mainly competing against PDK candidates. This year, the first round of elections generated another competitor to the LDK candidate. Shpend Ahmeti, of Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (LVV), was to challenge the two times winner of Prishtina, Isa Mustafa, who also chairs the LDK party. This was the first time the LVV was running in the local elections, and coming second was to be celebrated by their supporters. When the preliminary results started coming out last night, soon they started to show a very tough competition between the two, with Mustafa leading initially. However, after 30 percent of votes had been counted, results showed Ahmeti being for about 1000 votes ahead of Mustafa. Once all the votes had been counted, the Central Election Committee announced that 2580 votes set the two candidates apart, and Ahmeti was declared a winner with 37,001 votes, or 51.76%, compared to Mustafa who had won 34,521 votes, or 48.27%. While this can largely be seen as the victory of Ahmeti, rather than of the Vetëvendosje movement behind him, it also shows an interesting trajectory of the LVV, as well. From a street driven protest movement, the LVV shifted its political engagement to national parliament, but now it has been given a chance to govern for the first time, and governing of the largest municipality in the country will be a real litmus test for their supporters in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Nevertheless, Ahmeti brings forth a totally new category of Kosovar leaders. Educated at the AUBG, Blagoevgrad as Open Society Fellow, and as Ron Brown Alumnus at the Harvard University, his political engagement began only in the last national elections when he established the Fryma e Re (FER) party. He had served with the World Bank, later on, established and ran a think tank and a private business, and for a while even served as board member of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS), all while teaching public policy courses at the American University in Kosovo. Clearly, Ahmeti’s versatile experience, built upon excellent education, and voice raised against bad governance, corruption, and mismanagement at both national and local level have already built him the reputation of an intelligent and capable Kosovar worth to entrust with leadership and governance of the largest municipality in Kosovo, its capital Prishtina.

Surprise 2:
Another interesting story unfolded on the other side of the country. Tough competition took place in Gjakova municipality, the fifth largest in country. In post-war Kosovo, the political leadership of this municipality initially came from the LDK. Nevertheless, the LDK’s leadership faded away and the Aleanca per Ardhmerine e Kosoves (AAK), of Ramush Haradinaj became a serious contender to hold power in this municipality. But a political landscape took a shift in 2009. Mimoza Kusari Lila, who had served as Government’s spokeswoman in 2003, became the first woman to run for a mayor, as a candidate of the newly established party by Behxhet Pacolli, Aleanca Kosova e Re (AKR). 41.50% of votes won, had not secured her the mayoral post, after losing to Pal Lekaj, of AAK. Although in the meantime she became Minister of Trade and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister, Kusari Lila made a comeback to Gjakova this time. She challenged Lekaj again, only to win this time with 52.51% of all the valid votes casted. And above all, Kusari Lila became the first ever woman mayor in Kosovo.

Kusari-Lila is also a candidate whose public reputation has been built on western education, and versatile experience. After graduating economy at the University of Prishtina, she earned MBA at Duquesne University, in Pitssburgh as a Ron Brown Fellow, as well. Her pre-government experience has been built in the civil society since she led the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, after serving with various US funded projects in support of business development. She also has direct experience with the KFOS, since she served as a Committee Member for the Public Administration and Local Government program. Her commitment to improve business environment in Kosovo, while serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, among others have resulted in Kosovo’s improved global ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business report for two years in a row.


Surprise 3:
A specific reason why these elections were cheered as successful even before they took place and votes were counted was participation of the Serb run municipalities of the north. The participation, a result of a series rounds of negotiation between the Kosovar and Serb Prime Ministers, Thaci and Dacic, was seen as a new progress towards further integration of Kosovar Serbs into the state institutions and structures. Once Belgrade decided to encourage Kosovar Serbs to participate, they registered own Gradjanska Iniciativa Srpska (GIS), to compete for leadership of municipalities. GIS was presumed to be a serious contender for the leadership of northern municipalities, while Samostalna Liberalna Stranka (SLS), which had won a number of municipalities in the previous election, would continue to run the southern municipalities. Many in Kosovo were caught in quite a surprise when the results showed that GIS has won leadership in all but one municipality with predominantly Serb population, that of Shtërpce.

What makes this surprise a concern for the future of Serbs’ integration is the fact that its representatives continue to deny Kosovo statehood and strive to return Kosovo to Serbia. If this new development is to be seen as a precursor to the upcoming national elections, then Kosovo faces challenging times ahead, especially in upcoming national elections. As Ahtisaari Plan provides minorities with 20 guaranteed (at least 10 to be held by Serb) seats in the national parliament, opportunity to win more based on election results, and consensual decision on many national interest issues, it is clear that GIS’s current support may replace SLS representative in the national structures, and thus challenge the integration success achieved during the past years. Hence, this is a development to be watched out.

Conclusion
In a number of municipalities the victors were the new and young candidates who gained the trust of the electorate, but in a number of municipalities, the victors were the voters themselves who simply expressed their revolt against bad governance. Ultimately, the pro-democratic change was the victor of these last elections. With such drastic changes in the political landscape being presumed almost impossible, these elections proved that in Kosovo as well David bet Goliath, once again. Same as in the legend, Kosovo’s David is made of young, skilled, experienced and well-spoken Kosovars, who have the courage and wisdom to challenge the large political establishment, but more than that, to present a package of policies and projects that appeal to citizens’ needs better those of the previous leadership.

What remains to be seen is their performance and delivery, which will continue to be an object of civil society’s scrutiny.

Instead of Post Scriptum
Though a victory of Kosovar democracy, the Sunday elections were particularly a victory of the Kosovar voters. Beside deciding based on their true beliefs and expectations, this time Kosovar voters could guard their vote on their own due to the KFOS’s Vote and Watch campaign. Enacted in Kosovo for the first time ever, the campaign enabled Kosovars to send anonymous text messages to a free number (50088), which was enabled by all mobile providers in the country)and report on any irregularity they could have witnessed on their own. The campaign’s motto was that every citizen can guard his/her own vote, and as such minimize the potential for any irregularity to take place. By the end of the first round of elections on November 3 the received more than 16000 SMSs, about 7000 of which arrived during operating hours of the polling centers. About 25 percent of messages received informed the campaign on the presence of the deceased people in the voters’ list, and the same amount reported on a smooth process. other messages informed on manipulations within the polling station, privacy violation, bad management of the polling center, and inappropriate behavior in the voting booth.

Figure 1: the real time presentation of the categories of irregularities as reported by Kosovar citizens on November 3rd, 2013, at 15:40.

Compared to the first round, the number of irregularities reported were much lower. Throughout the run-off day, the campaign received slightly more than 2100 messages. About 30 per cent of the messages informed of the voting process being according to the procedures. The other messages, not exceeding 15 per cent, informed on the deceased people still being present in the voters’ list, manipulations in the voting booth, mismanagement of the polling station, and violation of the voter’s privacy.

Figure 2: the real time presentation of the categories of irregularities as reported by Kosovar citizens on closing of December 1st, 2013, at 19:00, when the polling centers closed

Prishtina Brussels [No]Express

On Thursday, April 11, 2013, the Forum 2015, an operational project of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, raised a new question regarding the current and future relations between Kosovo and the European Union. Established in 2003, Forum 2015 continuously strives to elevate important topics of Euro-Atlantic integration, to a higher level while presenting options for constructive and positive advancement of policy process in Kosovo. Though promised in 2003, the Kosovo’s European perspective is continuously being questioned on its true potential. The non-recognition of Kosovo’s statehood by five of the EU members halts any advancement of the current dialogue into a true contractual relation between the youngest European country and the EU itself. In the interim, Kosovo is being presented by various homework that do not necessarily help clarification of its European prospects. Hence, Forum 2015 presented today an analysis that reviews retrospectively the nature of this relationship.  The analysis, titled Kosovo – EU Relations: The History of Unfulfilled Aspirations?, looks into the “reasons and lost opportunities causing Kosovo to lag behind in achieving its European aspirations,” focusing on “the Stabilization-Association process, contractual relations between Kosovo and the EU and the perspective of full membership in European Union.”

Clearly, instead of building new momentum that would inspire and ‘fast-forward’ the pro-European reformation, the uncertainty of what relation will Kosovo have with the EU generates stagnation, the contrary of what everyone either in Kosovar society or Brussels would want to see. One may want to question why this happens?

Well, from the Kosovar perspective, EU has not been committed enough to ensure the fulfillment of this perspective in Kosovo. Since the first interactions in 2002, with the launch of the Tracking Mechanism of the Stabilization and Association Process, the EU’s greatest advancement in this relation has been to turn the process into a Stabilization and Association Process Dialogue (SAPD).  The current dialogue has not been applied ever before, as all Western Balkans states have been offered the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), as part of inclusion into the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP).  Signed between the EU and the potential candidate country, the agreement establishes contractual relations between the two, opens access to community programs and the latter is categorized as a potential candidate country. The aim of the SAP is preparing the potential candidate country for the candidate status, and successively, the multi-year and painstaking accession negotiations follow. The current SAP Dialogue does not provide guarantee that Kosovo’s successful performance will advance its status to a candidate country.

On the other hand, the EU continuously conveys critical messages on weak and insufficient performance of Kosovar government within the SAPD. While the critiques are very necessary, this current relation fails to benefit from the true conditionality that generates improved performance by the governments of adhering countries.  The true conditionality of the EU fosters genuine transformation of a country as after each of its stages, the EU rewards the good performance with advancement a step closer to the full membership. That road to full memberships initiates with contractual agreement signed between the EU and the adhering country, that is, the SAA.  While faced with EU homework in the form of European Partnership since 2006, the Kosovar government has never been sent clear and specific messages on what reward it would be awarded after good performance. If counted since the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, in ten years since, Kosovo has not embarked yet on the regular enlargement track, as its Western Balkans neighbors.

The non-recognition by its five [i]members has truly posed obstacles, but generation of creative ad hoc solutions I am afraid will not succeed to generate the results we all anticipate. When talking to the European officials, I am always reminded that the European integration process is not about becoming an EU member state as much as it is about improving the lives of the very citizens in the adhering country. While I cannot agree more, unfortunately, the experiences of the past have proven that the most tangible benchmark of improved performance is the very barometer available in the European enlargement process. Those are the mechanisms that each ruling political class strives to present its own citizens as a proof of great performance, securing this way the votes for the next mandate.

It was for Kosovo’s nebulous European perspective, that the Forum 2015 conducted the retrospective analysis of the relations between Kosovo and the EU. The analysis shows clearly that the EU may lose momentum in future should this current unclear approach towards Kosovo be maintained in the future as well.  The lack of cohesion among its members on Kosovo’s statehood will weaken the power of the EU’s positive conditionality due to lack of clear rewards after fulfillment of the already listed homework.  The government structures will decreasingly be less willing to invest their energy on policy reformation with no clear rewards and engage for visible infrastructure projects that will reward them with votes in the next elections. With current, though slow, advancements of other countries in the Western Balkans, the EU risks creating a black hole in its backyard.  Ultimately, the analysis concludes that “Without a change of attitude from both sides (the EU and the Government of Kosovo) realization of Kosovo’s aspirations for a European future will remain only pretty political rhetoric.

Hence, the EU should rethink carefully what approach should best be applied in the case of Kosovo and allow that approach to be lead by Enlargement policies rather than those of the European External Service Action. I strongly believe that being in its very backyard, Kosovo belongs to the former rather than the latter package of policies.  The last Feasibility Study of the European Commission opens way for establishing contractual relations by proving that “There is no legal obstacle for the Union to conclude on that basis an association agreement with Kosovo.” Once Kosovo signs a Stabilization and Association Agreement, it will be more willing to advance its engagement on all aspects of the europeanization, including the regional cooperation and good neighborly relations, what the focus of the EU for the time being seems to have been.[ii]

On the other hand, the EU should be reminded that should the state-building process not succeed in its backyard, in a country of 2 million people with a perspective of EU membership, I am afraid that the state-building missions in other parts of the world will be even more difficult goals to accomplish.

The First Letter from Independent Kosova

Dear Friends,

As of Sunday, my KOSOVA is independent and I am a citizen of the newest state in the world. A new state is born, and for all of us a new life and future are born. This is the moment that we have all been dreaming, waiting, and fighting for a long long time even though it came to be known only in 1999, when the NATO air-strikes made it known to the world. We are very excited and the joy we all feel has no end.

I have spent the last three days mostly in the streets of Prishtina, and I literally felt three waves of joy taking us over during this period.

The first wave began on Friday. The very preparations for celebration, taking place all around the city brought a new look to people's faces, and the joy was already radiating from their faces. Red flags and balloons, with double-headed eagle, already began waving from the balconies of the city center, lifting up further the festive spirit. The overflow of the numerous journalists from all over the world, all going in and out of the Media Center, set at the Grand Hotel, which is located at the very heart of Prishtina's city center, ensured every one of us that the Declaration of Independence was coming; this time, for real.

On Saturday, the first wave of joy continued to gain strength with each moment. The flags, posters, and congratulation notes and posters were already taking shape in Mother Teresa Square, cars passing buy, the buses transporting people, and balconies of the surrounding buildings, displaying the people's endless creativity on making their joy and feelings known. "BAC, U KRY" (BAC, it's over) poster was already hanging from the balcony of the Illyria hotel, while on another balcony across the street one could read a huge poster saying "INDEPENDENCE: LOADING ………… 100%."

The official announcement of the government's agenda for the D-day was made during Saturday, even though the exact timing of declaration was not mentioned. Did it matter at this point? I don't think so. It sufficed to everyone of us that what's we've been fighting for all these years is finally coming true. And it sufficed to know that it was finally taking place this Sunday, as since December 10th, 2007, everyone was wondering, guessing, speculating, about the date of declaration.

In the evening of Saturday night, the festive fever was at its highest. The city streets were fled with cars, this time not only from Prishtina, but from all over Kosova, displaying the most diverse flags, paying tribute to all the countries of the world that have supported us during all these years. The national Albanian and the flag of the United States continue to dominate these days, while the flags of the Western European powers were waving along.

The celebrations have continued all night long all over the country. Bars and restaurants of Prishtina were celebrating along with their guests, and the Albanian traditional, folk, and hip hop ensured to keep everyone fully awake and highly spirited throughout the night. The special edition of Peja Beer, named Independence, added further flavor to the celebration.

The sunrise of Sunday morning opened the second wave of joy. When I got to the city center noon time, there were already thousands of Kosovars. More people had arrived from all Kosova sides, and their number was increasing each moment. The low temperature (about -5 oC) of this sunny winter Sunday could hardly stop anyone from joining the crowd and being part and a witness of this important moment in Kosova's life. Many businesses were already distributing food and drinks for free to the celebrating crowd, while at one end of the Mother Teresa Square, the set up of the stage for the later-on concert was being finalized.

While the crowd was patiently awaiting and celebrating on the streets, the Prime Minister, Mr. Hashim Thaci had invited the Parliament to an extra-ordinary session and had presented the declaration to the Kosovar Parliament, declaring Kosova an independent, sovereign, and democratic state. All the political party members were present beside the Serb representatives. When voted, all members voted pro declaration with a show of hand, and resultantly, the Parliament declared Kosova an independent and sovereign state. At that moment, I had already left the crowd on the streets and joined the one in one of my favorite Prishtina bars, the Strip Depo (the Comic Books Depot). It was already packed with celebrating youngsters, and I hardly got in. People in there were carefully following the developments in the Parliament on the TV-set, placed in one of the bar's corners. Of course, not every one could watch it at this point, but again it did not matter. The outburst of cheer and cry at one end of the bar made it clear to the rest of us what happened. And the emotions, pride, joy, and happiness I felt at this moment cannot be described. Tears were running from my eyes in the meantime. I cried, happy that our dream came true, but I also cried because I wished I could celebrate that moment in my home in North Mitrovica.

When I woke up this morning, I thought I woke up in the 'morning after,' and thought that now we are to continue our lives as each other regular day, but focusing on building our new state. In a way, this is true. But watching the news and listening to the first recognitions of independent Kosova being announced I cannot stop and not feel the third wave of joy. And at times, I feel that this one is the most powerful. This slow process of bilateral recognition is becoming as the important stamp on some important document, something that makes it valid, something without which you cannot use it. And it makes it certain to us that the bitter history that we've gone through is truly over, and that a new age for KOSOVA is being born. After decades of Serbian rule, that long chapter has just closed, once and for all.

And that's why celebrations had to continue today and tonight as well. The city continues living and celebrating as two previous days, and I have a feeling that we'll continue like this for few more days too.

By the time I am writing this email 15 states have already recognized us, while 38 of them have declared that will recognize us soon. We're aware that the full international recognition will take a while, but what matters is the fact that we've embarked on this process and there's no way back.

I feel reborn, I feel new, and I feel that a new chapter is being openned for me and my Kosovar fellows.

And now I have to go because I have to build my KOSOVA's European future.

Independent Kosovar love to all of you,

Iliriana