Koha Ditore reports that the European Commission has found limited progress in many fields in Kosovo, while it remains concerned about problematic phenomena such as, organized crime, money laundering, corruption, politicizing of the judiciary and a lack of media freedom.

All of this has been included in the report of this year, which, on Tuesday 9 November in Brussels, will be approved by the European Commission.

Koha Ditore has managed to obtain a copy of the draft report, which, according to EU sources, is not expected to see changes by the time it is published. “The capacity of public administration remains weak. The rule of law remains a matter of serious concern”, says the progress report.

The Commission, in the report, says that progress in the fight against corruption is very limited. “Corruption in Kosovo has spread and it remains a very serious problem”. The report mentions cases of investigations by EULEX in the Ministry of Transport and that the Kosovo police, in cooperation with EULEX, arrested the governor of the Central Bank of Kosovo. It says that the government cooperated in these investigations.

Kosovo is also criticized for insufficient progress in the fight against drug trafficking, where with some results in starting investigations the number of confiscation cases and punishments remains very small. The Commission also expresses concern about the problem of money laundering in Kosovo.

“The funding of political parties is not in full accordance with EU standards. The fields of main concern remain public procurement, the judiciary, and the system of law enforcement”, says the report. Maybe the biggest criticisms are in the field of freedom of media, reports the paper. Also the European Commission, as many other international organizations have in the past, concludes that there is a lack of freedom of expression in Kosovo.