President of the Republic of Kosovo, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga, received a letter from the European Union’s Enlargement Commissioner, Mr. Stefan Fuele, after the approval of the Kosovo’s National Strategy on European Integration.
Following is the letter in full sent by Mr. Fuele to President Jahjaga
Dear President Jahjaga,
Thank you for having shared with us the Commission Kosovo’s National Strategy for European Integration.
This strategy is a dense document that contains an acute, as well as realistic assessment of where Kosovo is now compared with where it would like to be, by 2020. I applaud the honesty of the exercise as well as your ambition. You can count on my support both for the nature of these objectives as well as to help you reach these goals.
Your National Strategy is not only a document but also a process. I appreciate the wide consultation that went into drafting the document and the adoption by the National Council for European Integration, a body that I have supported strongly as it underpins a consensus on Kosovo’s European vocation.
The strategy itself covers a wide range of overarching themes. I trust that you will, as the document states, manage to dovetail this long-term vision for Kosovo into the other strategic documents that are listed and which will serve to implement this vision. Shortly after you sent me the strategy, the Commission and Kosovo opened negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first formal step in your European Integration. To implement the SAA and to demonstrate Kosovo’s readiness for other European commitments, you will need to be able to manage a broad EU-centred reform programme covering all Acquis areas.
For this reason, it is advisable that your strategy focuses on those cross-cutting framework issues such as the Rule of law and the fight against corruption, governance as well as further engaging with stakeholders. I am encouraged to see the importance that you have given to Public Administration Reform as a crucial element to deliver that reform programme. Successive Progress Reports have also highlighted this question, and the need not only to modernize but also to separate the political decision-making level from the executive level.
I look forward to the next steps in this process, to implement your National Strategy through those other strategic documents. I have asked my services, who manage the Stabilization and Association Process Dialogue, to integrate your National Strategy for European Integration into their deliberations and take up some more detailed issues that the document raises.
Yours sincerely,
Stefan Fule