Pristina, 27 April 2026
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, participated in the launch of the “Swiss Cooperation Programme in Kosovo 2026–2029”, which foresees a financial contribution from Switzerland worth around 70 million euros (64.5 million CHF) for the next four years.
Full speech of Prime Minister Kurti:
Dear Mrs. Mimoza Kusari-Lila, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Trade and Innovation,
Your Excellency Ambassador Jürg Sprecher
Your Excellency Ambassador Patricia Danzi,
Your Excellency Ambassador Tim Enderlin,
Dear Mr. Philipp Orga,
Dear Rector of University of Pristina, Mr. Arben Hajrullahu,
Dear Major of Pristina, Mr. Përparim Rama,
Honorable members of the Swiss delegation,
Dear members of the academic community of the University of Pristina, distinguished guests, and friends,
Good morning and welcome. Before I continue, I want to thank the Jazz Trio for providing a wonderful start of our morning.
Ambassador Sprecher, thank you for your welcoming remarks and highlighting the importance of change. I also thank Ambassador Danzi, Mr. Orga, and Ambassador Enderlin. Each of you and your institutions have played a vital role in advancing the development cooperation we celebrate today.
Allow me to note a small change of my own. When I arrived this morning, I was pleased to see the venue. Some of you may have noticed the location on the invitation was updated.
This change is certainly fitting. A programme dedicated to building, engineering, and solving the challenges of our future is best launched in a Faculty of Engineering.
It is quite meaningful to stand in a working university on a typical Monday morning. Right now, future civil engineers, water specialists and entrepreneurs are attending lectures. Four years from now, when this program concludes, some of these students will be contributing to the workforce, managing utilities, municipalities and businesses this cooperation aims to support. Launching this program here is truly appropriate.
So, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kosova, it is my honour to welcome you and to participate with you to the official launch of the Swiss Cooperation Programme for Kosova 2026-2029.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The partnership between Kosova and Switzerland is not a diplomatic formality. It is a partnership with a deep history and a bright future.
Switzerland was among the very first countries to recognize the Republic of Kosova after our declaration of independence in 2008. But long before that date, Swiss engagement in Kosova meant humanitarian assistance in our most difficult chapters, Swiss military personnel serving alongside allies within KFOR, and a Kosovar diaspora in Switzerland that has quietly, steadily built bridges between our two countries: in business, in culture, in everyday life. Today there is hardly a family in Kosova that does not know or have someone living in Switzerland, Bern, Basel, Lausanne or Geneva.
That human infrastructure is the real foundation on which every cooperation programme between us rests, and it is why my Government treats the diaspora as a horizontal priority of its medium-term agenda, and not as a footnote.
And let me add something that matters to me personally. Our diaspora does not only send remittances. They live, every day, in their host country, inside the very kind of public systems that Swiss cooperation is helping us build here at home: a municipal administration that fulfills its commitments, a vocational track that opens real doors, patient-centered healthcare, a public service that puts the citizen first. They know how that works from the inside. In the next four years, my Government very much hopes to see that lived experience flow back in more deliberate ways, as citizens of two countries giving some of themselves to both. I am thinking of the retired teacher, nurse, or municipal engineer in Basel, Bern or St. Gallen who could volunteer a few months a year with a school, a clinic, or a municipality here at home. I am thinking of the young professional in Zurich or Lausanne who might take a sabbatical, or a summer internship, inside one of our institutions. That kind of human transfer of know-how is a natural extension of the work this programme begins today. Before we look ahead, we should reflect on the programme that is now concluding.
The 2022-2025 programme delivered results that impacted the lives of our citizens. I have learned that over 10,000 people improved their employment situation, and 14,000 enrolled in vocational education and training, generating more than 4 million Swiss francs in additional net income for Kosovar households. The Municipal Performance Grant is now part of our legislation, and citizen satisfaction with municipal services has increased.
Our score on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index improved from 36 to 44 points between 2020 and 2024, the product of stronger institutional cooperation, a more capable civil society, and institutions willing to be held to account.
The people of Kosova have felt these interventions in concrete ways. We extend our gratitude to the four Swiss government agencies that make this cooperation possible: the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the Peace and Human Rights Division, and the State Secretariat for Migration. You have stood with us, and we thank you.
Before I speak about the programme itself, allow me one point that matters to my Government. This cooperation is not a parallel agenda. It sits on top of the frameworks that guide our own work: the National Development Strategy 2030, the National Programme for European Integration, the Reform Agenda under the Growth Plan, and the Economic Reform Programme 2026-2028.
In our most recent Medium-Term Priorities Statement, my Government identified five horizontal priorities that cut across every sector: the Digital Agenda for Kosova; Inclusivity; the Green Agenda; Migration and Diaspora; and Youth. I invite you to hold those five in mind, because the Swiss Cooperation Programme 2026-2029 speaks directly to each of them.
The programme launched today directly addresses the priorities I have outlined and supports our European path. Director-General Danzi and Ambassador Sprecher will discuss the programme’s substance. My role this morning is to affirm that where Switzerland builds, Kosova builds alongside you. The motto, Empowering People, Strengthening Systems, Sustaining the Future, accurately reflects the work of my Government that we strive to achieve every day.
Distinguished guests,
Kosova’s goal is clear: full membership in the European Union. Our National Development Strategy 2030 serves as the roadmap, and the Swiss Cooperation Programme 2026-2029 is closely aligned with it and with EU reform priorities. Every Swiss franc, every hour of technical expertise, and every policy exchange is a contribution to our European journey.
To Switzerland: thank you.
Swiss cooperation is most effective when Kosovar ownership is strong. The next four years are our responsibility to implement with seriousness, discipline, and results that our citizens can experience.
And to the students whose faculty we are borrowing this morning: this programme is ultimately for you. When we gather again in 2029 to mark the conclusion of this cycle, I hope some of you will be on the programme, not as students this time, but as the young professionals already helping to run the country we are building today.
With that, and with real pleasure, I declare the Swiss Cooperation Programme for Kosova 2026-2029 officially launched.
Thank you. Faleminderit. Merci vielmals.