On 20 March, EULEX Head of Mission, Alexandra Papadopoulou, attended another meeting of the High-level Rule of Law Forum regularly convened by the Prime Minister as a coordination mechanism for all heads of key rule of law institutions in Kosovo as well as the U.S. Embassy/USAID and the EUSR/EU Office in Kosovo.

The discussions focused on progress made in dealing with targeted cases linked to the visa liberalization for Kosovo process and on the issue of fighting impunity, especially in light of recent appointments in several Kosovo institutions that raised serious concerns.

The EULEX Head of Mission urged the government authorities to support and encourage the Kosovo’s justice institutions in carrying out their crucial work free of any undue interference and in full respect of their independence and autonomy. “This will help judges and prosecutors to be successful in tackling all cases, not only the targeted ones for visa liberalization, and in turn this would be a concrete and effective way to increase public trust in the work of Kosovo’s justice system”.

“This high-level forum should be synchronized with the work of the Justice 2020 initiative. These two fora should be seen as complementary, with the mechanism chaired by the Prime Minister providing strategic guidance and the right level of leadership engagement and Justice 2020 functioning as a catalyst for change within justice institutions themselves by relying on the Ministry of Justice, KJC and KPC to lead efforts on implementing previously identified and specific measures. International partners, including EULEX, are ready to help”, Ms. Papadopoulou remarked.