Implementation of the European Reform Agenda (ERA) objectives: How much have public institutions progressed during 2018?

GAP Institute, Group for Legal and Political Studies and Pristina Institute for Political Studies during the year 2018 monitored the achievements that institutions have had on implementing the measures outlined in the European Reform Agenda, as well as the measures outlined by the Government Decision in November of 2017.
 
The monitoring process has been carried out for three pillars of ERA: Good Governance and Rule of Law, Competitiveness and Investment Climate, and Employment and Education. ERA sets 29 measures with 108 respective actions, of which about 63% are fully completed, 19% are partially completed, and 18% remain unfulfilled.

Njomza Mjeku from GLPS said that in the first pillar, Good Governance and Rule of Law, 73% of actions are completed, 16% are partially completed and 11% remain unfulfilled. Some of the shortcomings in this area are the adoption of legislation by making mandatory suspension and / or removal of public officials, respectively the defendants and convicts for corruption; preparation of a legal package for electoral reform; preparation of the Law on Financing of Political Parties; completion of the finance audit for political parties; implementation of the Plan for the rationalization of independent agencies and central bodies within the Government, and others.

Meanwhile, Nora Jusufi from GAP Institute emphasized that in the second pillar, Competitiveness and Investment Climate, 57% of actions are completed, 23% are partially completed and 20% are incomplete. An achievement worth pointing out for the last quarter of 2018 is the adoption of the Law on Energy Efficiency and the approval of fund board although the functionality of the latter has not yet started. Also, the improvement of statistics produced by the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) and the production of new statistics for businesses, workforce, and family budgets is another achievement. ASK continuously publishes the foreseen statistics by expediting publication time and by improving the methodology. However, KAS does not publish full databases, which makes it difficult to use that data. 

And for the third pillar, Employment and Education, Visar Xhambazi of PIPS, added that 59% of actions are completed, 19% are partially completed and 22% are incomplete. It is worth pointing out that the Action Plans for Employment and Social Policies and Youth Employment were completed by the end of 2018 with regard to the Employment field, the two measures identified were met in precision. The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare has completed all the necessary tasks in relation to the ERA. Further, due to the many challenges, there will be no establishment of the Curriculum, Standard and Action Agency, but the division for standard assessment and monitoring will be strengthened. Consequently, with the EU recommendation, this move will be removed from the ERA criteria list.