A similar assessment has come from the European Commission, framed in far more diplomatic language. Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier repeated, in comments to Radio Free Europe, the call on political actors in Kosovo to urgently end the deadlock.
“It is essential that Kosovo’s institutions are constituted without further delay, in line with the constitutional framework,” Mercier said, adding that delays in forming the institutions risk slowing reforms and limiting Kosovo’s ability to fully draw on Growth Plan funds.
A European official who spoke to Radio Free Europe on condition of anonymity went a step further, acknowledging that the political crisis is already leaving its mark on how Kosovo is assessed in Brussels.
“The political situation in the country has inevitably affected the pace of implementation and limited progress on a number of key reforms,” the official said, adding that this has also put funding from the Reform and Growth Facility at risk.
Constitutive session on hold
The Assembly of Kosovo, elected on June 7, has still not been formally constituted. The constitutive session opened on August 6 and has since been postponed twice, at the request of Albin Kurti, leader of the winning Self Determination Movement list, who is seeking more time to reach an agreement with other parties, including on the question of the future speaker. A new date has been set for September 9 at 11 a.m. Our readers already know how those talks have unfolded, from an earlier report on the meeting between Kurti and Abdixhiku that ended without a deal, and on the vote in which Sejdiu won 74 votes.
Jakaj notes that Kosovo was among the first to submit its Reform Agenda, back in 2024, but was the last to submit a report on reforms carried out, and that in just eighteen months it has gone through three election cycles: two parliamentary votes and local elections held in two rounds. His assessment is that the past two years have seen an erosion of constitutionality, legality and the democratic process, and that even in the best case scenario following the election, the Assembly and the Government would have to work at a pace regular parliamentary work never requires, just to meet a deadline that now falls in under four months.