Prishtina, 5 July, 2023
Address of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, at the joint conference with the Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers, Hekuran Murati, after the 149th meeting of the Government:
Dear journalists and media representatives,
Dear citizens of the Republic,
Equality and well-being are basic principles of our Constitution, but especially and above all, they are the main pillars of our Government Program, as well as principles of our work as a Government.
We promised economic revival after the COVID-19 pandemic through interventions with measures to increase liquidity among households, and with the support of those who need the hand of the state the most. We did this through the Economic Recovery Package, where we undertook a series of measures for direct support of the most vulnerable groups of society, as well as support for families, so that the financial burden of successive crises is alleviated.
We promised increased social welfare for all families in need, we increased social assistance, and among other things, we supported them through guaranteed employment for one family member. The “Government for Families” employment scheme, introduced in the same month, but a year earlier, foresees a wage subsidy scheme for the family member who is employed, thus guaranteeing the employment of at least one family member. So, no family in Kosovo, without any employees was our commitment in the winter of 2020-2021. Now, from this scheme, we have over 1,500 families that have a family member employed.
We also promised maternity allowances and child allowances, and they were among the first promises we fulfilled. We started the implementation of these schemes through the Economic Revival Package, but this has now not only become a permanent social policy, but also an important instrument for the financial empowerment of women. Until now, we have about 36 thousand expectant mothers and about 360 thousand children who are beneficiaries of these schemes.
Today, at the 149th meeting of the Government of the Republic, which we just finished, we approved the draft law to supplement and amend the Law on State-Funded Pension Schemes. We promised that we would review the legal framework to address the several-year-old issue of inequality for not recognizing the right to contributory pension for those citizens who were violently dismissed from work in the 90s, and we are fulfilling this promise as well.
The legal regulation until now provided for the right to contributory pension only for those who provide evidence of 15 years of contribution to the former pension fund. It denied the right to those who left their jobs violently, due to non-fulfillment of the 15-year contribution condition.
Thus, this category of citizens of our Republic experienced double inequality. Once during the violent dismissal from work during the time of the former Serbian regime, and then once again by the power of the former governments, which by law or not changing the law, denied the right to the contributory pension scheme to this category of citizens, who would have qualified if they had not been forced out of work.
In this way, we are the only Government that, with concrete legal actions, are restoring equality and increasing social well-being, by changing the law which will make it possible to gain the right to benefit from their contributions even those who, due to leaving violent from work, they failed to fulfill the condition of 15 years of contribution.
This achievement is added to the list of issues and problems that others failed to solve for 20 years, and we are fixing them in the first mandate, even in the middle of the mandate.
We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but with patience and dedication we will be able to fulfill everything we have promised until the end.
Despite the challenges, despite the obstacles and the stones that are thrown in our way every day, we do not stop, we keep and fulfill the commitments given to our citizens.
Last modified: July 5, 2023