Prishtina, 22 December 2024
Honorable citizens,
Distinguished journalists present,
On this beautiful and sunny December Sunday, we have invited you to this conference to share good news.
Although today marks the shortest day of the year, it is precisely today that we extend the hand of the state even further.
As you already know, the Government distributes economic growth and budget revenues equitably, focusing primarily on those who need the state’s support the most.
For over 20 consecutive years under previous governments, children were proclaimed as our future, yet the allocated budget for them remained at zero. Not a single supportive measure was provided for children or mothers on maternity leave.
When we included the promise of allowances for mothers on maternity leave and for children in our program, there were many opponents and skeptics. The opponents argued that we should not provide allowances to all children, while the skeptics claimed that the promise was unattainable due to budget constraints.
Yet, we fulfilled this promise completely, securing the budget and thereby joining the ranks of countries that are far more economically developed than us and that have universal financial support schemes for children. Not only did we fulfill the promise, but we also exceeded it. In August of this year, we introduced the redesigned child allowance scheme, which increased support by doubling the amount, or even tripling it in cases where families have three or more children aged 0–16 years.
Now there are over 400,000 children who regularly receive their allowances every month in the mother’s account. For a family with three children, this amounts to 90 euros per month or 1,080 EUR annually. Who would have believed that the day would come when families would receive financial support from the state, exceeding 1,000 EUR a year? Yet, that day has arrived!
We also introduced maternity allowances, a measure that many found unbelievable – supporting mothers during the first 6 months of maternity leave. This was deemed incredible because, under previous governments, the budget was consistently directed towards a small group of individuals and businesses surrounding them or central to their interests, leaving nothing to be distributed to women and children. This, too, was achieved for the first time under our administration. A state for women and a state for children.
Another promise we made was the annual reimbursement of taxes that families pay for the cost of living minimum. We began implementing this promise last year, and as pledged, we will continue it this year as well.
Therefore, dear children, all of you aged 0–16 who receive monthly child allowances will also receive an additional 100 EUR this year.
This is not merely an end-of-year gift from your state but an investment in the well-being of all children, without distinction. So, dear parents, raise your children with good health and instill in them love for their state. When values and love for the nation are nurtured in childhood, the future of our Republic is undoubtedly in safe hands.
In addition to investing in children, who represent both our present and especially our future, we must also support those who contributed to building our state and brought us to where we are today.
Thus, as we have made it a tradition whenever there is sufficient budget and the economy grows beyond projections, we allocate an additional one-time support of 100 EUR at the end of the year – or as some have begun calling it, the 13th pension – for all qualifying pensioners.
This marks the fifth time during our mandate that such support is distributed to our pensioners. We first implemented this at the end of 2021, followed by April and December of 2022, at the end of 2023, and now again in 2024; fortunately, we have had excellent economic performance and increased budget revenues.
Thus, in addition to raising pensions – first, the basic ones in 2022, and subsequently all categories by 20% this year – during our mandate, unlike any other government, every pensioner has also benefited an additional 500 EUR as supplemental support to ease their burden.
Therefore, this year-end, following our established tradition, we are providing 100 EUR each for children and pensioners.
Last modified: December 27, 2024