The Stability Pact and Kosovo

Kosovo is administrated by the international community through UNMIK. UNMIK is representing Kosovo within the Stability Pact framework and is partaking in its activities. However, the constituent components of the international administration of Kosovo, the UN, the OSCE and the EU Commission, are also participants of the Stability Pact.

Most of the funding for Kosovo is raised directly, as was the case at the latest Kosovo Funding Conference on 25 and 26 February 2001 in Brussels. Therefore, the financial support going to Kosovo under the umbrella of the Stability Pact is comparatively small, amounting to approx. 50 Mio Euro for the year March 2000 to March 2001 (Quick Start Package). Some of this money is going to regional projects benefiting several countries at a time and can therefore not be allocated to one territory or country.

Working Table I: Democratisation and Human Rights

Many Stability Pact projects are regional in nature. Therefore, Kosovo is one of several beneficiaries of the following projects. Financial commitments under Working Table I are approx. 18.5 Mio Euro for 29 projects.

Gender Task Force

The project "Women’s Leadership for Democratic Social Change in the Yugoslav Successor States", for which 500.000 Euro have been committed, supports women seeking economic and political leadership roles in a democratic Kosovo.

Human Rights and National Minorities

4 projects for a total of 2.512.329 Euro.

Main funding went to the initiative "Assessing, Advocating

For and Implementing Human Rights in the Balkans and Strengthening the Balkan Human Rights networks: A co-operative Program with Local Human Rights NGOs", endowed with 1.042.248 Euro.

Ombudsman

A new ombudsman institution has been set up and became operational in Kosovo. The international community has committed 270.000 € for the support of several ombudsman institutions in the region, including Kosovo. As an effective non-judicial means of human rights protection, the ombudsman is a key institution for the promotion of accountability and good governance.

Good Governance

3 projects for a total of 1.263.900 Euro.

0.9 Mio Euro went to the project "Taking action after the war: Democracy building and the challenge of difference in South Eastern Europe". It is a training project with a cross-border approach on democratic practices.

Education and Youth

There are 9 projects either for Kosovo exclusively or with Kosovo benefiting in a regional context, totalling 5.911.600 Euro.

Main funding went to "Contributing to Stability in SEE through Strengthening Local and Regional Structures of Adult Learning" (3.372.000 €, committed by Germany for period December 2000 to 2003). Other projects include the European School, Youth and Community Network (328.000 € committed by Austria).

Media

11 media projects for a total of 8.123.478 Euro have been launched in the region in order to develop free, independent and pluralistic media, amongst them the European Centre for Broadcast Media, which is a non-partisan partnership framework for the transfer of professional journalism training over an initial period of 3 years (1.989.596 Euro).

Working Table II: Economic Reconstruction

The completion of the 33.30 million US-$- infrastructure project "Urgent Road" in November 2000 has contributed to the reconstruction and economic development of Kosovo, by improving the main road network.

A project in FYR of Macedonia aimed at improving facilities at Blace border crossing with a financial volume of 7 Mio Euro is also benefiting Kosovo.

Working Table III: Security Issues

A principal priority for the Stability Pact under the Working Table on Security is the reduction of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in Southeast Europe. The Stability Pact has supported a number of efforts throughout the region, some of which have received donor financing, to assess the scale of the SALW problem and the needs for systematic collection and destruction.

As UNMIK, together with KFOR, has also started a comprehensive approach to the limitation of the possession of weapons in Kosovo, Working Table III seeks ways to enhance co-operation with UNMIK in this field and on security issues in general.

What is the Stability Pact?

The Pact is a political initiative to encourage and strengthen co-operation between the countries of South Eastern Europe as well as to streamline existing efforts for assisting South Eastern Europe’s political, economic and security integration in Europe. The Pact does not implement the projects, which were placed under its auspices during the First regional Funding Conference of March 2000. It is an instrument to co-ordinate and possibly accelerate the projects of all its partners, such as the European Commission, NATO and OSCE, the International Financial Institutions, the member states of the European Union, other Stability Pact partners such as the United States, Russia, Hungary, Canada, Norway and Switzerland as well as all the countries of south eastern Europe. FRY joined the Stability Pact as a full member on 26 October 2000, after the democratic changes had taken place in Belgrade.

The Stability Pact has 3 Working Tables with 244 projects under the Quick Start Programme (82 % of projects started between March 2000 and March 2001) with an overall financial engagement of 2.4 bio Euro for the region as a whole. Working Table I is dealing with Democratisation & Human Rights, Working Table II with Economic Reconstruction, Development and Co-operation, Working Table III with Security (one Sub-table Security and Defence, one Sub-table Justice and Home Affairs).