Prizren, October 9, 2025
At the Innovation and Training Park in Prizren, the Ignita Forum 2025 is being held, organized by the Open Society Foundation for the Western Balkans. The Acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, also took part in the event.
In his address, the Prime Minister said that the Forum aims to contribute to the integration of the region into the European Union and the fulfillment of a long-standing promise.
“As the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, I fully agree with this noble aspiration. For more than two decades, the European Union has continuously affirmed that the Western Balkans belong in the EU. This commitment was first articulated at the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, where the EU pledged its support for our integration. The commitment has been reiterated many times since, through the conclusions of the European Council, every six months,” said Prime Minister Kurti, adding that despite the prolonged and ongoing delay in fulfilling the Thessaloniki promise, both the Government and the people of Kosovo remain distinguished by their unwavering commitment — not only to EU membership but also to European values and principles.
The Prime Minister spoke about Kosovo’s stance on the war in Ukraine, its alignment with the EU’s foreign policy, sanctions against Russia, and the hosting of Ukrainian journalists; as well as the democratic progress and economic development achieved during this government’s mandate — evidenced by Kosovo’s high rankings in various international indices. He also highlighted the strong public support for EU membership in Kosovo, the highest in the region.
He emphasized that women and youth have been at the center of the government’s development policies, with concrete actions and programs undertaken such as child and maternity benefits, free public higher education, support for students, and the Mobility Scholarship.
“Despite the delays in our region’s European integration, citizens are able to see that everyone — not just the elite — will benefit from alignment with the EU in key areas of domestic and foreign policy,” the Prime Minister stated.
Full speech of Prime Minister Kurti:
Dear Mr. Leonard Bernardo, Senior Vice President of Open Society Foundations,
Dear Mr. Andi Dobrushi, Director of Open Society Foundations Western Balkans,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to address you at the opening of the first-ever Ignita Forum, held in the historic city of Prizren. According to its program, this unique forum seeks to contribute to an ambitious task, one that is vital to the future of our region and Europe as a whole. That is the task of, I quote: “stripping EU integration of its inertia and making it deliver on a long-overdue promise — to cross the institutional, political, and civic thresholds that still stand in the way of the Western Balkan countries becoming Member States of the European Union.”
As Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosova, I could not agree more with this noble aspiration. For over two decades, the European Union has consistently affirmed that Western Balkans belong in the EU. This commitment was articulated at the Thessaloniki Summit of 2003, where the EU pledged its support for our integration. The commitment has also been repeated many times through European Council conclusions, every six months.
Against this backdrop, there is no more fitting place than Kosova to hold a regional forum on the theme of EU accession. Despite the lengthy and ongoing delay in fulfilling the promise of Thessaloniki, both the Government and the people of Kosova are distinguished by an unbending commitment, not only to EU membership, but also to European values and principles.
For example, Kosova has acted in full compliance with the EU’s Common Security and Foreign Policy. This is evident in our consistent condemnation of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine and the adoption of multiple sanction packages against Russia, Belarus, and their allies. Kosova has also provided substantial military aid to Ukraine, including vehicles and mortar rounds. We have welcomed 19 Ukrainian journalists to Kosova as a part of our Journalists in Residence program, offering them a safe space to continue their important work.
Meanwhile, our progress on democratic indicators has been repeatedly confirmed by independent observers over the past four years. For example, Kosova’s global ranking has improved 31 places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, in which we achieved our highest ever score this year. A Freedom House report ranked us first in the Western Balkans, second in Europe, and third in the world for the greatest improvement in political rights and civil liberties. And a report of the World Justice Project placed Kosova second in the world for greatest progress in rule of law. We are the first in the Western Balkans, and among the top nine countries in the world in terms of democratic progress, according to V-Dem Institute’s Electoral Democracy Index.
Just like our Government, the commitment of our people to EU integration remains as strong as ever. According to the latest survey, completed earlier this year by International Republican Institute, our population is the most pro-EU in the Western Balkans, by a large margin. Out of the 91% of respondents who expressed an opinion in the survey, 89% said that they would vote in favor of EU accession if given the chance, with only 2% opposed. This represents a 16 percent higher level of support than the second most pro-EU country in the region, Montenegro.
What accounts for our people’s overwhelmingly positive attitude to the European Union, especially over the past four years? I believe that part of the answer is that, through progressive social-democratic policies, our Government has worked hard to ensure that all of our people benefit from Kosova’s alignment with EU policies. So we did consider that European Union is homegrown yet not self-made. We need help from outside but we are not going to really import it. We are going to build it from ourselves, within ourselves. We need help for something that we will do, it is not that we are going to help someone in doing something to us, and I think that this approach, homegrown yet not self-made is something that worked well. And nowadays as we see across our continent, Western Balkans is in Europe, but European Union should become Europe and in the quest of EU to become Europe, they should include the Western Balkans which is like an enclave within the common continent. However, in pursuing these social-democratic policies I must say that my impression which grew ever-stronger in recent years is: European Union as a value, is left to the left. It is the leftists today in Europe who consider European Union a value. Whereas European Union as a tool is there for everyone. Everyone uses EU as a tool, but having European Union as a value, it has been left to the left. And social democrats of our continent, should rise to their historical task and embrace this opportunity, in spite of all the risks and dangers we’re in and surrounded with.
It would be impossible in a short speech to list all of social-democratic decisions that our Government has taken in the past four and a half years in office. But two recent decisions serve as examples of our progressive orientation. In June of this year, we passed a substantial increase in government subsidies for new mothers. Thanks to this decision, both employed and unemployed mothers now receive over 2,000 euros of state support within the first year of giving birth. And, since many in the audience are young people, another new policy I believe will be of particular interest. Just this week, our Government allocated 26 million euros to support university students, whose studies are free of charge for bachelor and master degree, no student in Kosova pays in public university, and we’ve done this support at the beginning of the academic year. This includes a 100 euro subsidy for all students, as well as additional financial aid to cover transportation costs for those who live outside the city in which they study. So if you study further away from home and family then the Republic and Government will help you more. We have been focusing very much on children, women and youth. Because middle age men they always somehow find their ways, so including myself. So its women, children and youth that we have been helping most and evermore also elderly, but the percentage of elderly in Kosova is much lower than in Europe, because average age of the population is 35.
Our progressive approach has also been reflected in our EU-aligned energy and climate policy. Kosova has the fifth-largest stores of lignite in the world, and the second-largest in Europe. Despite this, we have demonstrated a firm commitment to our green transition — a key EU priority and a main theme of this Forum. Importantly, we have proceeded with this transition in a way that benefits all of Kosova’s people. For example, we have successfully completed Kosova’s first 100 MW solar auction, with a competitive price of just below 49 euros per MWh, proving how citizens benefit when there is fair competition and transparency. We have helped households by subsidizing the cost of thermal insulation and other investments in energy efficiency. We have also provided incentives to reduce electricity use, by paying families double the cost of every KWh of reduction in their household consumption. For example, every household which proved that in past month they spent less than in the same month in the previous year, we paid double the price of KWh spent in that month. So you can imagine that we have had the situation where a member of a family went to pay electricity, and then from the other side of the desk you hear the voice of a clerk saying to you: “you don’t owe us, we owe you”. A citizen goes to pay electricity and they tell him or her that actually it is the system who owes to them, not the other way around.
We also provided education and employment of youth and women in energy sector and here of indispensable help has been Millennium Challenge Corporation, the U.S. institution giving us over-200 million dollars of grant to increase energy efficiency and security, but at the same time to provide us with battery storage for renewables.
While these are just a few examples, I believe that the key to maintaining popular support for EU accession is to combine pro-EU policies with a strong, social-democratic vision. In my view the only democracy today is social democratic, and through social democracy we can defend both democracy as such but liberal values alike.
In this way, despite the long delay in our region’s European integration, the people are able to see that everyone — not just the elite — stands to benefit from alignment with the EU on major issues of domestic and foreign policy. So we perhaps could be accused for enjoying slightly too much the process of integration without having this destined station in sight, however we insist that it does not matter how far will be the day that we are going to join the EU, we should work to have it as soon as closer as possible and show fidelity to EU values from social-democratic orientation no matter what happens. So never reduce EU to a vehicle or a tool; always have in mind that it is the best project of peace and prosperity since Second World War; and our generation has something important and valuable to fight for.
With this concluding thesis as food for thought, I wish you a productive two days of discussion and debate — accompanied, hopefully, by exploration of the beautiful city of Prizren that surrounds you — at this inaugural Ignita Forum.
Thank you very much!
