Kosovo in five years

By Birte Kajamaa

On Friday 18 June, we met with Mr Petrit Selimi. Mr Selimi has a background in politics, and was formerly Kosovo's Minister of Foreign Affairs. He worked under former Prime Ministers Hashim Thaçi and Isa Mustafa. In 2017, Mr Selimi left politics and became the CEO of the Millennium Foundation Kosovo, which is Kosovo’s biggest foundation. The foundation’s mission is to accelerate Kosovo’s transition to energy independence and good governance.

 

Upon entering the Zoom meeting, Mr Selimi apologised for his 2-minute delay and then went on to tell us about himself, his work, as well as his thoughts on the current situation in Kosovo.

 

Our lecturer, Anne de Graaf, told us that in past years, Mr Selimi had always shown incredible excitement about his projects as well as Kosovo’s future, but this year he came across as much more disheartened. Mr Selimi, however, hasn’t been the first person that we met who has had this shift. As the years go on and Kosovo continues to exist in a sort of stalemate -- a limbo, the people of Kosovo are getting increasingly discouraged about things improving in the near future. Many people we spoke with have mentioned the word fatigue (or one of its synonyms),  and understandably so. It has been more than 20 years since Kosovo declared independence, yet it is still in a disputed situation. The people of Kosovo are trying hard to create change, but politics continues to get in the way. 

 

Mr Selimi expressed that he really wished that he would not have to pass these issues onto his son’s generation, but he feared that this would probably be the case. When asked where he saw Kosovo in five years, Mr Selimi’s face fell and he responded, “exactly where it is now.” He said that all problems could be solved within five years, but that the chances of this happening was extremely unlikely. His hope would be that there can be some sort of a peace agreement with Serbia, as this would allow other countries to recognise Kosovo and thus allow not only Kosovo, but the entire Balkan region to move forward. He suggested that even if Kosovo and Serbia could not agree on independence, they could perhaps still come to an agreement of acceptance, similar to what East and West Germany had during Germany’s divide.

 

Overall, I can say the hour spent with Mr Selimi was a very thought-provoking one, he came across as a very reflective and perceptive person, who deeply concerns himself with the issues that Kosovo faces. Before the meeting ended, he thanked us for our critical questions, and he said that these always lead him to self-reflect and reconsider things. 

 

Our class is eager to see how Mr Selimi will engage himself in the future, as we believe he will continue to play an active and important role in Kosovo’s development.