EC President Ursula von der Leyen visits Kosovo on October 15

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kosovo on October 15 for the first time during her second term in office. The visit is part of a tour that Von der Leyen will take to all the countries of the Western Balkans.

The President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to visit Kosovo on October 15, as part of her tour of all six Western Balkan countries, KOHA has learned from sources in Brussels.

This will be her first visit to the region during her second term as President of the European Commission. She also visited Kosovo on October 24 last year, as her first term was coming to an end. 

It has since been announced that Von der Leyen will head the European Commission for a second five-year term.

Von der Leyen's first visit to Kosovo in a year has been full of enthusiasm. In a press conference, she congratulated the Kosovo Government and Prime Minister Albin Kurti for their "wonderful work on the reform agenda" and pledged that by the end of 2024 the European Commission will make the first payment of over 60 million euros to Kosovo from the European Union's (EU) Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.

But a year after that, Von der Leyen will find Kosovo in a completely different situation, involved in a political deadlock, without institutions formed according to the February 9 elections, while the payment of the first financing funds from the Growth Package has not only not been made in 2024, but cannot be executed this year either, and it is questionable when they will be made. 

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Kosovo is thus paying the price for the lack of a constituted Assembly and a government, which institutions could approve and ratify the agreement with the EU for the implementation of the payments foreseen in this EU plan. 

Kosovo, alongside Bosnia and Herzegovina, remains the only one that has not received the first payments from the Plan.
Von der Leyen is expected to meet with President Vjosa Osmani and acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti during her stay in Kosovo. Details of the agenda for her stay in Kosovo are being coordinated by the EU Office in Pristina, which is why European diplomats in Brussels are not sure at which facility Von der Leyen will meet with Kurti. 

A few months ago, the EU Office decided that officials from the bloc would not meet members of the incumbent government in their government offices, as a result of the Supreme Court's decision that they cannot hold positions in both the Assembly and the government at the same time.

The visit of the European Commission President to Kosovo will take place just a few weeks before the adoption of the annual progress reports for the enlargement countries. This visit, according to sources in Brussels, was one of the reasons why the reports will not be adopted in mid-October, but in the first week of November.

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Von der Leyen is expected to reiterate the European Commission's commitment to the region and the countries' prospects for EU membership during her tour of the Western Balkans. But with the exception of Albania and Montenegro, no other country in the region has made any progress in this process. 

Von der Leyen is expected to begin her visit to the countries of the region in Tirana on October 13, while as part of it she will also stay in Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.