Prishtina, 12 September 2017 – Lëvizja FOL organized an open discussion on the Minimum Wage and its Effects on Employment, where the panelists were: Haxhi Arifi – BSPK, Alejtin Berisha – Entrepreneur, Besnik Bislimi – Professor, Lumnije Hashani – Kosovo Chamber of Commerce.

Jeton Zulfaj from the Lëvizja FOL said that the minimum wage is one of the most sensitive issues in decision-making and it is not just state policy to intervene in the labor market but it is also a moral issue to ensure that there is no exploitation of workers. “The 2011 decision on minimum wage was an ad-hoc decision, where there was no public discussion involving the academy, trade unions, and businesses. Formulas for determining the minimum wage are not explained and justified, while the minimum wage divided by age does not have any legal and logical basis and as such is discriminatory. At the academic level, the growth of the minimum salaries on the equilibrium level is not supported as it will have a negative impact on employment, “Zulfaj said.

Besniki Bislimi, professor of the course Economics of labor market, said that the minimum wage in normal countries is not considered an instrument to fight poverty. “The example is America where only 4% are affected by the minimum wage, and usually are students, who are not necessarily part of the poor. Better was the wage subsidy than minimum wages as policy instruments. Trade unions should not be part of minimal wage disputes as they have a conflict of interest, “Bislimi said, adding that trade union members usually receive wages higher than the minimum wage and are not affected by it.

Meanwhile, Alajtin Berisha, entrepreneur, said there is no place in the world that business requires minimum wage growth, because the business does not have to trust someone else to adjust the salary. Trade unions have a conflict of interest in determining the minimum wage. “An increase in the minimum wage would have a negative impact on students to stop studying. Right now this is not the case, “Berisha said.

Haxhi Arifi, from BSPK, said that at the Economic and Social Council (ESC) there were numerous discussions on the minimum wage, and at the end a minimum wage was categorized, but it was discriminatory for workers. This decision was taken by consensus. The government has ruled out what has been achieved as a consensus and have decided that it is discrimination against the young age. We as BSPK have demanded that the base be 60% of the average wage to be taken as a minimum wage.

Lumnije Hashani from Kosovo Chamber of Commerce said that the categorization of the minimum wage is not supported even by Kosovo Chamber of Commerce because it is a discriminatory decision. “ESC has an advisory role and the government is the one that makes the decisions. If we take into account the established legal criteria for the base, then the minimum wage was supposed to increase every year, but that does not happen, “said Hashani. According to her, based on a survey conducted by the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce with about 500 businesses, 80% of them have stated that the minimum wage categorization should be removed and 85% said it should be the minimum wage. While most have said that 220 Euro would be affordable for businesses as a minimum wage.

This activity was supported by Enhancing Youth Employment – EYE Project – the Swiss Cooperation Office project and implemented by Helvetas Swiss Cooperation and MDA.

Prishtina, 7 september 2017 – Lëvizja FOL, through the “Seeking for Justice” program, held today a meeting with judicial actors to discuss transparency in the judicial system in Kosovo. The panel composed of Dastid Pallaska, Lawyer, Aferdita Bytyçi, President of the Basic Court in Prishtina, and Armend Hamiti, Prosecutor at the Basic Prosecution in Prishtina, where discussed and shared their views on the transparency in the judicial system.

Gersi Gashi, from Lëvizja FOL, opened the discussion with two essential issues: the publication of judgments and the publication of reasons for non-attendance of court hearings. z. Gashi emphasized that the publication of the judgments serves to the benefit of the citizens as well as the judiciary as an institution. The publication of judgments, among other things, enhances legal certainty, encourages judges to argue cases in the best, helps increase citizen confidence in the judiciary and helps students to better understand the system by studying concrete cases.

The President of the Basic Court in Prishtina, Aferdita Bytyci stressed out that although transparency remains a priority of the court, and this can be seen from the number of published judgments, it is very important to understand that there is a huge lack of resources in the courts. She added that the efficiency of the courts, especially that one of Pristina, is increasing and as a result, more cases have been solved than they were received in court.

One of the reasons for the distrust of citizens in the courts and the prosecutor’s office is the non-publication of their work and the failure to inform the public on time. Lack of transparency by the courts themselves enables citizens to be informed only of other sources. Therefore, it is important that courts continue with the publication of court decisions, work on publishing all decisions (including those that are not final) and start publishing the reasons for not holding the hearings. “Increasing transparency in the work of the courts will have an impact on increasing citizen trust in the courts,” Gashi added.

Dastid Pallaska, in the role of a lawyer, strongly supports the publication of court decisions first by anonymizing personal data, for reasons of non-violation of the presumption of innocence. “There is an even deeper issue when it comes to transparency. Non-professional reasoning of decisions and lack of transparency in them. Because there are times when the lawyer’s argument is not mentioned at all in the court decision, “Pallaska sead.

Pallaska also sead that as a solution should not be a continuous complaint for a lack of judges, because according to him this can be easily covered by increasing the number of professional associates and legal assistants for judges.

This would be a multifunctional strategy for reducing the number of old cases, professional preparation of future judges and would also affect transparency.

Finally, all panelists were of the opinion that the publication of judgments should be made, and that the courts should inform the citizens of their work.

 

Prishtina, 31 August 2017– The Assembly of Members of Lëvizja FOL held today the next meeting where the election of the Chairperson of the Assembly and the Executive Director of Lëvizja FOL was made..

Chairman of the Assembly for the next two years was re-elected Armend Pajaziti, while with 15 votes for, 1 vote against and 1 abstention, Petrit Zogaj was re-elected director of Lëvizja FOL. The number of members of the Assembly of Lëvizja FOL reaches 27, whereas in this meeting present were 17 of them.

Petrit Zogaj is co-founder of Lëvizja FOL and since September 2011 served as Executive Director. Zogaj is also the founder of S’bunker and a member of its editorial board. He has studied Political Science at the University of Prishtina.

Also during this meeting was approved the Financial Report and Work Report for 2016.

 

 

Prishtina, 23 August 2017 – Lëvizja FOL published the report “Implications_of_Health_Insurance_on_Economy“.

Prishtina 20 July 2017 – Lëvizja FOL held today an open discussion on “The Impact of Health Insurance in Employment, with a Focus on Youth”. Petrit Zogaj from Lëvizja FOL said that FOL has conducted a research regarding the impact of health insurance on employment and that through this debate, we will understand more about not starting the collection of health insurance premiums.

 

Gersi Gashi from FOL presented the findings of the report “The Impact of Health Insurance in the Kosovo Economy”. The key findings show that in the absence of concrete and rapid steps, we are still without health insurance. Gashi said that the transparency of this process is crucial for this system to function. “Among other things, there should be: consultation and consensus by key stakeholders, and meet all the criteria foreseen before starting the collection of premiums,” Gashi said, adding that the impact of health insurance on the basis of the findings is positive. Likewise, theories and empirical findings indicate that citizens’ willingness to pay for health insurance and the burden on businesses would not be as great as hiring young people.

Meanwhile, Haxhi Arifi, President of the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo (BSPK), said that the non-implementation of laws has a bad impact in the state of Kosovo because health insurance is not only about health. “It is not surprising that governments fail to fulfill their obligations to implement laws. It is not a good thing that law enforcement is neither implemented nor for the state or for the partners. Only in Kosovo we have remained without a Law on Insurance; in the region they all have. This law is not just about health insurance but also employment especially for young people because we have a contingent of 25 thousand young people who are capable of the labor market each year, “Arifi said.

The chairman of the Federation of Kosovo Health Unions, Blerim Syla, said that guilty of the lack of health insurance in Kosovo are all the governments so far, but also the international factor. “The Government of Kosovo is guilty, but not only this government, there is also the international factor. The concept paper that is made predicts that medium businesses are hit and big businesses are favored. Then how does this hiring youth? We as a federation have proposed to make an escalation. Take the example of Slovenia and Croatia, which have 26 categories of premium payments, “Syla said adding that the legal criteria for commencing collection of primums have not yet been met. According to him, the list of services that will cover health insurance is not yet compiled, the pricelist is missing, the equipment with health cards is missing, there is no exact date of service.

Lumnije Ajdini from the Kosovo Business Alliance (AKB) said that in January they knew they would not have health insurance, as promised. “It is very important for all of us, and especially for young people to have health insurance. Since January we knew we could not have health insurance in July because the jobs were not done, I suspect they have not started yet, “she said.

Lumnije Hashani, from Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, said that in cooperation with businesses have listed the recommendations on this law and sent it to the government.

Fatmir Haxholli, a social and employment policy expert, said the lack of sufficient pressure is the cause of not starting the collection of health insurance premiums. According to him, there are many people who work in the informal market and if there is health insurance, people will put more pressure on employers to provide them with contracts. “It would also affect unemployed people. If there were health insurance, people would work because everybody wanted health insurance for their children, “said Haxholli.

Lundrim Aliu, from the World Bank in Kosovo, said that the World Bank has supported the health system in Kosovo throughout this time. “The World Bank has supported the Kosovo government in the reforms that are being made in health, in this case also for health insurance. We have demanded that poor citizens remain unaffected by health insurance payments and that the provision of services begins in parallel with the collection of premiums, “said Aliu, adding that there is still a lot of work to be done in this regard and the Ministry of Health should tell us where the jobs are left.

Prishtina, 18 July 2017 – Lëvizja FOL held today a roundtable discussion where a draft report “No Tax without Information: Transparency in Public Procurement in Kosovo” was published. Petrit Zogaj from FOL said that today will be presented the report on public procurement. “FOL has been dealing about 6 years with public procurement, seeing that the obstacles are numerous FOL is committed to make recommendations and to influence the improvement of the situation in this field,” said Zogaj.

Meanwhile, Jeton Zulfaj from FOL said that the methodology of this report includes a series of interviews with institutions, research through case studies, focusing on transparency in public procurement. The main findings of this report relate to the limited transparency offered by the current legal framework and limited access to public documents based on the law on public procurement. The centralized procurement system causes corruption to be present, while the lack of partner register in public procurement leaves much room for corruption development. Failure to verify foreign businesses from ARBK causes many foreign businesses to come and operate in Kosovo. Zulfaj added that access to contracts is often justified by calling on commercial interests, while the online public procurement platform offers limited access for citizens wishing to know more about public contracts.

Vjosa Pllana fromFOL said that “institutions that restrict access to public documents on the basis of the protection of economic and commercial interests make constitutional violations”.

Safet Hoxha, chairman of the PPRC, said that the findings of this report reflect all the involvement of institutions in the spending of public money. According to him, all stakeholders should have equal access at all stages so that transparency is at the right level. “As procurement is being defined as a complex process, we need to know that our legislation has also been able to reach a satisfactory level, although there is still a need for improvement.” Hoxha said that every purchase over 1000 Euros, any changes in the tendering process, any result, decisions of the PRB etc., are published on the PPRC’s website. “We are working intensively to improve e-procurement to increase the level of transparency and increase the confidence of citizens in the public procurement process.” According to him, E-PROCUREMENT is currently at a limited stage in terms of access to it, but it is working on this and when the platform is stabilized, NGOs and citizens will have access.

Stephen Carpenter from USAID / TEAM said it would stop more on transparency of procurement processes. “To have a good procurement system we should have E-Procurement even more functional, good functioning of auditing, and have active media and civil society,” said Carpenter, adding that Kosovo has made some progress in these four areas but still a lot of work to do.

According to him, the Government has introduced some key modules, but there are still other modules. “Preparation of technical specifications, review of complaints, contract management, these are the areas where USAID / TEAM is working with other stakeholders to increase the capacity”.

Shaip Havolli, director of AKM, said that with review of the legal framework, the agency has added some responsibilities regarding the investigation of procurement activities. “The more problem lies in monitoring the contracts. There is usually doubt about the fact that economic operators are rewarded during the implementation because quality is not good or less served. Also, the problem lies with the procurement officers who have to be sanctioned for the violations they have committed. So far, there are very few penalties for these officials in writing any more, “said Havolli, adding that businesses that are under investigation or those who have been brought criminal charges are not entering the black list by the contracting authorities.

Kreshnik Gashi from BIRN said that we are discussing transparency and accountability in public procurement, but we are forgetting that the government is still keeping us the biggest contract in this country on the highway. “There is a year and a half that BIRN has won the trial and the Office of the Prime Minister refuses to give us access to the expenditure bills,” said Gashi.

Mehdi Pllashniku from ARBK said that all the information that ARBK publishes on the web site are defined by law.

 

Ky grant është financuar nga projekti Promovimi i Shoqërisë Demokratike (DSP) – i financuar nga Zyra Zvicerane për Bashkëpunim në Kosovë (SCO-K) dhe Ministria e Punëve të Jashtme e Danimarkës (DANIDA) dhe menaxhuar nga Kosovar Civil Society Foundation – KCSF

Prishtina, 18th  July 2017 – Levizja FOL published the report  “No taxation without information: Transparency in Public Procurement in Kosovo”No taxation without information

Prishtina 15 Jue 2017 –  Lëvizja FOL announces competition for 2 interns. Practitioners will have the opportunity to contribute to the various projects of the Lëvizja FOL in the field of counter-corruption.

The conditions to be met are:

1. Students
2. Age – 19-26 years
3. Knowledge of English is a priority

All interested parties send their CV and a motivation letter of no more than 300 words – to the email address: [email protected] with the subject: Application for Practice.

Deadline: June 26, 2017

Only candidates who will be selected on the shortlist will be called to the interview.

Prishtina, 7 June 2017 – Lëvizja FOL held today an open discussion on “Good Governance: Employment Policies for Young People”. Panelists in this discussion were representatives from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and representatives of the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo.

Petrit Zogaj, executive director of FOL Movement said that the purpose of this discussion is to have a clear picture of employment policies, where we stand with the preparation of young people for the labor market, and it is a good policy to export human resources to the external market in the context of Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Gersi Gashi from FOL presented data on youth and youth employment, emphasizing that the factual situation of the large number of unemployed at young people, as well as the large number of young people who do not attend either training or education and are not at work.

Meanwhile Dëfrim Rifaj, director of the Department of Labor and Employment at the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, said that this ministry is reviewing the strategy for youth employment. “The good things that have been done in this direction should continue despite the change of ministers,” said Rifaj.

Meanwhile, Fatmir Haxholli, advisor to the outgoing Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Arban Abrashi, stressed that the number of unemployed among youth is high and unfortunately even though it was a coalition party’s priority, the budget for this ministry has not increased.

“Emphasis should be put on important things. The budget is not increased, it is known how much the funds went to the veteran, then the poor level of coordination with donors at the level of all institutions. The past strategy was never approved in the government, so we started refreshing and I wanted to send it for approval, but things have changed with the fall of the government, “said Haxholli, adding that the European Commission has also given a recommendation for increasing the number of employees in young people and women.

The representative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ryva Prokorogja, said that MEST has the priority of hiring youth. “MEST has a strategic plan on this issue and donors have been forced to implement these policies. Vocational education has been a priority of both ministries MEST and MLSW and therefore some things have gone well in this regard, “Prokorogja said, adding that there is overload in Kosovo regarding the fields of economy, health and law while there are no laminate staff wood or metal processing.

According to her, the new curriculum is based on 7 competences, where it is given great importance to entrepreneurship skills. “We also need to become more aware of society, because very few consider the school of agriculture and all run after gymnasium, this should change because it needs to adapt to market demands,” she said.

Dafina Mehaj from BSPK said that unfortunately BSPK has no statistics how much is the number of unemployed amongst youth, but she asked to work more for those who are employed and especially in the private sector. “Many private sector workers are treated as modern slaves and the inspectorate has not taken any action in this regard,” Mehaj said.

Student questions were about employment after completing studies, lack of practice, recognition of internships, concrete criteria for public competitions.

EYE Project is a project of Swiss Cooperation Office and implemented by consortium of Helvetas Swiss Cooperation and MDA

Prishtina, 1 Jun 2017– Lëvizja FOL has held a roundtable discussion on Judicial Performance in the fight of Anti-Corruption. Participants in this discussion were various actors in the judiciary in Kosovo, such as: Agim Maliqi from the KJC, chairman of the Kosovo Basic Courts, EULEX representatives, civil society organizations and the media..

Jeton Zulfaj of the Movement FOL said that measuring the efficiency of the judiciary in the field of anti-corruption has been done mainly relying on the methodology used by the European Commission on Efficiency of Justice but also on other methods.

According to him, the findings indicate that the Judiciary has shown a good performance in the fight against corruption in general. “In 2016, the judiciary had 639 cases of corruption. Out of these cases, 407 cases were transferred from 2015, 232 cases entered in 2016. The court has given justice to 284 cases. With this performance, the judiciary has solved more subjects than it received in 2016, “said Zulfaj.

However, due to the large number of cases transferred to some courts, as is the case with the Basic Court in Pristina, according to Zulfaj, the trend of leveling the cases will take a long time. “Based on the performance of the judiciary for 2016, the courts will be able to level up the cases carried forward in 2029,” he said.

Meanwhile Mr. Agim Maliqi from the KJC said that the report published by FOL is very detailed and these findings should be analyzed in detail by the KJC in order to improve the performance. “The priority is to increase citizens’ trust in the judiciary. According to the data Pristina is worse while Gjakova and Ferizaj are champions in solving the cases because they have given priority.

Beqir Kalludra from the Basic Court in Pristina said that this court has a problem with the large number of inherited cases. “In addition to inherited cases, we have problems with providing the parties in the procedure. We have EULEX cases, special prosecution in specific cases. It happens that a subject has 94 files. Prosecution has moved forward because it has profiled prosecutors. We have a lot of problems here, “said Kalludra, who suggested that cases over 10 years be judged by the serious crimes department by a judge.

Ali Kutllovci from the Basic Court in Mitrovica said that is success in this court but must also look at the working conditions. “In addition to the difficult working conditions, we have a problem because 12 judges have left their job in court,” Kutllovci said.

Jennifer Seel from EULEX said that this report is a good summary of numbers and I hope it will be annually enriched with other formulas where it will be more enriched.

This grant is funded by the Democratic Society Promotion Program (DSP) – funded by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Kosovo (SCO-K) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA) and managed by Kosovar Civil Society Foundation – KCSF

 

Prishtina 1 June 2017 – Representatives of Lëvizja FOL met today with the Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Economic Development, Selami Berisha. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the application of E-Procurement electronic system and the challenges of its application.

Berisha explained that with the E-Procurement electronic system they started to implement from January 2017 and that the MED staff was trained and is consistently part of the trainings organized by the PPRC.

“We have problems that are small and there is no way to postpone any procedure due to hardware problems, because even if there is a problem, it can take up to 30 minutes,” Berisha said. Regarding the re-enrollment on the E-Procurement platform he said that it is obligatory for each economic operation to register, according to him, if an economic operator is not registered in the e-procurement platform, the same cannot submit the offer either hard copy.

“The electronic procurement system E-Procurement increases transparency, makes work easier and the good of all this from the system is if we know who has made the withdrawal of the file,” he said, adding that the contract signature has not yet changed and it is done in the same way, but this can be changed with eventual changes in the Procurement Law which has deficiencies in this regard.

This meeting was also discussed for the expenditures that the Ministry of Economic Development had for 2017. As far as these expenditures are concerned, Berisha said that until the report of the Auditor General comes out, they cannot give a precise figure of how much they spent this ministry in the field of procurement. “The amount we can give is that the Ministry of Economic Development has signed contracts in the amount of € 5,408,216.67 for 2016, but this cannot be taken as an expense,” he said.

This grant is funded by the Democratic Society Promotion Programme(DSP) project – funded by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Kosovo (SDC) and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA) and managed by the Kosovo Civil Society Foundation (KCSF).

 

Prishtina, 31 May 2017 – Lëvizja FOL with the suppor of Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has held the debate at the Forum FOL Hapur where the guest was Mr. Avdullah Hoti, candidate for Prime Minister from LDK-AKR-Alternative.

Petrit Zogaj executive director of Lëvizja FOL said that today we are holding FOL Hapur with Avdullah Hoti, while we expect the following days to have two other candidates for the Prime Minister in this forum..

Meanwhile Mr. Avdullah Hoti, the candidate for Prime Minister from LDK-AKR-Alternative, presents various points of his plan that will be presented during the pre-election campaign. “We have just started the work, the first pillar is economic development, employment. The program has no competition compared to other parties. We will further reverse the economic development of the private sector, “said Hoti..

Regarding the issue of demarcation with Montenegro, Hoti said that political consensus will put an end to this issue. “We have big decisions to be taken in the country’s institutions. Our government as a coalition is quite clear. We pledge to be successful. Every square meter of every meter of Kosovo will be defended. I will involve all political actors in solving this problem, “said Hoti adding that demarcation is a difficult topic and relates to visa liberalization, but coalition LDK AKR in the first few months will find a solution to this issue.

Meanwhile, regarding the issue of dialogue with Serbia, Hoti said that the talks will be led by the prime minister and for this will be set a timeframe when to finish.

Prishtina, 29 May 2017 –  Lëvizja FOL was part of the regular monthly meeting of the Presidents of the Basic Courts and the Kosovo Judicial Council where it presented some of the concrete steps that would affect the increase of transparency in the judicial system, and consequently the increase of citizen trust.

The first point that was discussed at this meeting was the cancellation of hearings and the publication of the reasons for not keeping them. Gersi Gashi, from FOL Movement, said “While the courts in most cases do not have fault of not holding and postponing hearings, public perception is not such.

One factor that plays a role in this perception is the lack of disclosure of reasons for non-attendance of hearings. Chairperson of the Kosovo Judicial Council, Nehat Idrizi, said that this would be an important step in boosting citizens’ trust, and while there is a lack of resources to achieve this for all subjects, some of them can be started, such as cases in which the media and public interest in general is higher. Stephanie Lefeuvre, from the European Commission, stressed that the cancellation of hearings, the reason for their cancellation, would be part of the CEPEJ Indicators and the Electronic Case Management System, therefore it should be started on time.

 

The second point of the discussion was the anonymisation and publication of all judgments, including judgments that are not final and executable. Gersi Gashi emphasized the legal basis that allows this, since the international conventions, the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo but also the practices of the European Court of Human Rights. While there were no objections from any of the attendees about this, the Presidents of the Basic Court of Prizren and Peja stated that such a thing should happen. The President of the Basic Court in Prizren, Ymer Hoxha emphasized that Article 22 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo is a source of right in our country, and therefore it is foreseen direct implementation of international agreements / conventions, therefore publication of all judgments should be implemented. The KJC Chair added that while the law on the court prohibits the publication of all verdicts, the law should first be amended and then other changes are to be proceeded.

Regarding the issue of anonymity, while there were no objections about the non-anonymity of cases there were allegations by some mayors that such a thing should be reviewed. Such a revision is supported by FOL Movement, and proposes to have meetings between the KJC, the Presidents and the Personal Data Protection Agency, to draft a regulation which at the same time protects personal data, but also does not protect more than it needs. Moreover, the President of the Basic Court in Prizren and that of the Basic Court in Ferizaj supported the idea of publishing the judgments without anonymity at all, since according to them, when the verdict is public and issued on behalf of the people, then also as such should be published.

Finally, the issue of meetings between court presidents and oversight judges was discussed. Gersi Gashi emphasized that these meetings are very important, just as for the courts, but also for the public. While these meetings are regulated by law, at a minimum of one to three months, there should be greater transparency for these meetings, keeping and publishing the minutes of these meetings. The Presidents of the Courts indicated that these meetings are held, and more regular meetings are held and are all the time in coordination with the branches, but the minutes of these are sent to the KJC and it remains for them to decide on their publication.

As a conclusion it is important that the judiciary is making the link of transparency, accountability, and is interested in working on raising citizens’ trust. It remains to monitor these processes and postpone the implementation of discussions from this meeting.

The “Search for Justice” program aims to strengthen citizens’ demands for justice in Kosovo. This program is implemented by NCSC and is supported by the US Department of State / INL.

Prishtina, 24 May 2017 – Lëvizja FOL in cooperation with the Kosovo Democratic Institute and the Center for International Legal Cooperation (CILC) with headquarters in The Hague, launched today the project “Promoting Integrity in the Justice System”. This project, which is supported by the Dutch Embassy in Pristina, aims to increase the integrity and empowerment of the independence of the judiciary and the state prosecutor with a view to establishing a strong justice system and improving public confidence in the justice system.

The Dutch Ambassador to Kosovo, Gerrie Willems said that with the implementation of this project we will come to understand the current situation regarding integrity in the judicial and prosecutorial system, deepen the knowledge of integrity and build capacity to deal with integrity issues in the judicial system and prosecution. At the same time, citizens will be aware of issues of integrity in the justice sector.

“This project will open the debate on a different perspective of integrity in the Kosovo justice system. In this way, the aim is to increase the trust of citizens in the prosecution and the court and the rule of law in Kosovo will be improved in general,” Ambassador Willems said.

Deputy Director of the Center for International Legal Cooperation, Eric Vincken said that integrity is the concept we face every day in whatever role we have and that it is not a particular term used solely for the judiciary. “Integrity also needs permanent maintenance, monitoring and mechanisms to deal with integrity violations, not just in Kosovo or the Netherlands, but in any country of the world,” he said.

While the Kosovo Judicial Council chairman, Mr. Nehat Idrizi, emphasized that this project serves as a sufficient conceptual framework for carrying out research, analysis, recommendations and capacity building regarding the integrity of actors in the Kosovo judicial system. “We have consistently expressed our friendly approach to initiatives aimed at promoting integrity and increasing public trust in the work of the judicial system,” Idrizi said.

Whereas, the Head of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, Blerim Isufaj emphasized that integrity is a vital prerequisite for the independent, impartial and professional functioning of the justice system, and according to him, any integrity-oriented activity is very important for the system. “Assistance to this project in carrying out qualitative and quantitative researches will help us enormously in identifying the progress and challenges of the prosecutorial system, which will be support for the council for making the right decisions,” he said.

The event was concluded with the signing ceremony of the memorandum of cooperation related to this project between project representatives and chairpersons of both councils.

Prishtina, 17 May 2017 – Lëvizja FOL held today the round table discussion “Prosecution Performance in the Fight Against Corruption”, where participants were Blerim Isufaj from Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, Sevdije Morina, Deputy Chief State Prosecutor, Prosecutor of Basic Prosecutions, Council of Europe Representatives, Civil Society Organizations and the media.

Jeton Zulfaj from Lëvizja FOL, said that prosecutors for 2016 have solved more cases than they have received.

“The flow of cases, pending cases on January 1, 2016 were 1424. We are talking about cases, but these are persons because the work of the prosecution is measured by persons in our judgment”. 826 there were the number of persons who entered during the calendar year. We are talking about 365 days and the total of subjects at work 2250 people, are solved 1073 people there you can see that 826 people who entered in 2016, 1073 are resolved that is a positive trend, he said.

Meanwhile, Blerim Isufaj, the head of KPC, said that the fight against corruption is a priority of the State Prosecution. “This report is extremely useful for analyzing cases of the state prosecutor through a clear methodology such as the prosecution case rate, trends, timing and statistical data coverage,” said Isufaj. According to him, this report is extremely useful as it is part of the council and provides a clear picture of the performance of the prosecutorial system, fighting corruption.

State Prosecutor Sevdije Morina is concerned with the large number of cases. “It is really a matter of big concern that Kosova should be on the road and their proceedings. Where there is no evidence, the task to be done is to carry out the duty with professionalism, because any other action to an official duty if someone sends a case to the court whenever there is no evidence. When it comes to the performance of prosecutors, raising the indictments is even more worrying if charges are raised without the foundation of the law, “Morina said.

Jetish Maloku, the Prosecutor of the Basic Prosecution in Gjilan, said that with all the work that has been done there is still a lot to be done. “We need public trust, so we have a lot to do in that direction,” Maloku said.

Stephanie Lefeuvre of the Council of Europe said that FOL has done very well using these indicators for the breakdown of these statistics.

Lëvizja FOL will publish during 2017 reports on measuring the three-month performance in the anti-corruption fight for the prosecution and the courts, but will also measure the performance of judges and prosecutors.

“This grant is funded by the Democratic Society Promotion (DSP) project funded by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Kosovo (SCO-K) and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA) and managed by the Kosovo Civil Society Foundation (KCSF )”.

Prishtina, 11 May 2017 – Lëvizja FOL as part of the “Seek for Justice” program has launched the e-Court platform today (www.egjykata.org). Unlike the Kosovo Judicial Council’s existing portal, this platform provides multiple and diverse filters, enabling access to judicial decisions in an easy, fast and creative form.

Gersi Gashi from the Lëvizja FOL said that this platform contributes to enhance the transparency of the judiciary by creating easier access for citizens and different actors of the judiciary. “In the platform-Courts there are over 700 judgments, the search of which is easier on the basis of 13 different filters. Also, over 1,600 form of declarations of the assets of judges have been placed in a visualized manner. The purpose of this platform is to provide a new way of accessing information to the judiciary. The courts that have issued most decisions are Prishtina, Prizren and Gjilan, while those with the least are Mitrovica, Peja, and Gjakova, “said Gashi.

Lëvizja FOL through this project is pushing forward the necessary legal changes for publishing all decisions and other information about the judiciary in order to increase transparency. The project also aims to raise the awareness of the judiciary about the record and publication of reasons for non-attendance of hearings. Both of these would be concrete actions that would improve the transparency of the judiciary in order to increase citizens’ trust.

The www.egjykata.org platform enables to search the decisions based on different filters such as: (a) legal basis (law / code and relevant article), (b) date of court decision, (c) date of initiation procedure and ten (10) different filters. The platform has also presented in a visualized manner the declarations of the property of the judges.

The Seek for Justice Program is funded by the US State Department / INL and implemented by the National Center for State Courts to support a strong evidence-based development of evidence-based justice in Kosovo. Through the Law Search Program, NCSC is mobilizing Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) partners to act as agents of change by promoting accountability, transparency and integrity in the justice sector.

Prishtina, 11 May 2017 – together with the Mebius Film Production from Sarajevo have organized the documentary for the young “Perspective”, which has been held in the premises of FOL Movement for three days.

In this documentary, young participants have discussed the youth perspective on issues that affect them every day, such as student life, social values and other topics such as promoting dialogue and communication between communities in Kosovo.

In this documentary were engaged about 50 young people, all students from Kosovo’s public and private universities.

Documentary “Perspective” was shot for the first time in Kosovo, while this documentary was also shot in Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

The purpose of this documentary is to listen to the voices of young people and to give them space to express their opinions and different themes.

Prishtina, 10 May 2017 – Lëvizja FOL held today the lecture with Deputy State Prosecutor, Ms.Sevdije Morina. The students discussed with Mrs. Morina about the Anti-Corruption Agenda of the State Prosecution, the large number of cases in the anti-corruption field and the integrity of prosecutors.

The lecture was held at the “Center for Education and Anticorruption” (AEC) at Lëvizja FOL, with students from public and private universities.

Prishtinë, 20th Aprill 2017 – Lëvizja FOL has published the report “Beyond Numbers Performance of the Prosecution in the fight against corruption

Performance of the Prosecution in the fight against corruption

Prishtina, 4 May 2017 – Lëvizja FOL has organized the next lecture with Mr. Safet Hoxha, Chairman of the Board of the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission. Mr. Hoxha, interviewed students about the work of the institution he leads, the impact of e-procurement on reducing the misuse of spending of public money and the impact of corruption on procurement and the fight against it.

The lecture was held at the Center for Education and Anticorruption (AEC) at Lëvizja FOL. Such informative lectures will be held in the future by representatives of various institutions.

“This grant is funded by the Democratic Society Promotion (DSP) project funded by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Kosovo (SCO-K) and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA) and managed by the Kosovo Civil Society Foundation (KCSF)”.