Zymer Potoku, aged 84, from a village not far from the capital, Pristina, took advantage of a sunny day in February to visit the city centre and spend his Saturday relaxing in one of its squares.
A few months earlier, however, he was forced to take a trip to the capital for a different reason – to appear at the pensioners’ office to verify that he was still alive, as he had to, every six months. “It was very difficult for me,” Potoku told BIRN.
Potoku falls into the category of pensioners who paid contributions to the pension fund for 15 years and so receives around 200 euros per month.
Now he no longer has to show up in person to claim it. In December 2025, Kosovo’s Supreme Court ruled that a 2015 administrative order, obliging all pensioners to show up and confirm that they are alive, is illegal.