Embarking on a mission to digitize public services by 2030 is imperative for Kosovo to align with global standards, yet serious challenges lie ahead. Kosovo aspires to shift the majority of its public services online by 2030, leveraging advanced digital infrastructure. The newly approved strategy for the digital agenda, endorsed by the country’s government, seeks…
If the last six years hold what the future will look like, then Albania and Kosovo are the first Western Balkans countries set to join the EU. Earlier this month, European Commission published the latest enlargement package. The day the package was presented to the public was indicative of the sea change that enlargement has…
In a village around 30 kilometres from Kosovo’s capital, students and citizens flock daily to the country’s first observatory and planetarium. Until last year, a small plot in the heart of Rashince in the Shtime municipality that used to grow corn has transformed into a hub for astronomy enthusiasts, now home to the village’s first…
On the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, personal possessions owned by a teacher killed in the 1995 massacres were exhibited in a commemorative display at BIRN’s Reporting House in Prishtina. An old wristwatch and a broken pair of glasses that belonged to English language teacher Rasid Fazlic, a victim of the Srebrenica massacres, were put…
Brussels says Prishtina’s decision to lift its ban on Serbian goods at one border crossing is a positive step toward restoring free trade in the region and unblocking CEFTA. The European Union’s office in Prishtina on Tuesday welcomed the Kosovo government’s decision to scrap a ban on imports of Serbian finished goods at the Merdare…
As part of the tour in three Western Balkans countries, CIA Chief William Burns visited Kosovo to meet President Osmani and Prime Minister Kurti. The Chief of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns spent two days in Kosovo for official meetings with the country’s top leadership in a surprise visit. His trip also…
Prime Minister Albin Kurti rejects Western demand to push ahead with Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities as a condition for Council of Europe membership this month. Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, said on Wednesday that his government will not send the Statute of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities, ASMM, for review to the Constitutional Court, a…
A Kosovo court sentenced a man to four months in jail for threatening BIRN Kosovo journalists while they were reporting on a controversial initiative to build a Catholic church in a village in February. The Skenderaj/Srbica branch of the Basic Court of Mitrovica on Tuesday sentenced Mustafe Hasani to four months in prison for threatening…
Newly formed state training centre for cyber security seeks to improve state institutions’ capacities in combating cyber attacks. The recently established State Training Centre for Cyber Security aims to improve the limited cyber security capacities of Kosovo’s public officials in order to address specific risks of cyber attacks. Bashkim Sejdijaj, commander of the Cyber Defence…
“NATO troops decided that if the Yugoslav Army wished to be awkward, the Kacanik defile could block it,” Freer recalled, 25 years later, in an interview from his home in Scotland. But they hadn’t counted on the Russians. “It all happened very quickly. There was very little hold-up getting through the Kacanik defile, and then…