31 may – Elementary School Musa Zajmi in Gjilan/Gnjilane

“Kosovo is on the right path but needs to work hard”

Hanns-Christian Klasing and Blerim Krasniqi from EULEX were today’s EU Teach a day speakers in Elementary school Musa Zajmi in Gjilan/Gnjilane. Mr. Klasing started his presentation by mentioning the long lasting war between Germany and France followed by the realization people from different countries and different ethnicities had to start working towards living together peacefully.

Everything started with French Minister for Foreign Affairs Robert Schuman who helped in uniting the countries in order to rebuild after the Second World War. The European Union was developed around 50 years ago and started with France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and Netherland. Mr. Klasing also stated that every country that went through war should take this as an example in order to move forward back and start working on their future. For Kosovo the most important thing is EU integration and therefore Kosovo young people should work on this every day.

Blerim Krasniqi then explained the role of EULEX and also mentioned other EU presences in Kosovo such as the European Commission Liaison Office and European Union Special Representative. Mr. Krasniqi said that EULEX is here to assist Kosovo in strengthening the Rule of Law which is one of the most important things to become the EU member state. Kosovo should also work very hard in terms of economy, freedom of movement, freedom of speech and other aspects that are mentioned in the EU progress report which evaluates Kosovo’s approximation of European standards. Kosovo’s perspective toward EU should be led by fulfilling the same criteria that all EU member states had to fulfill on their road to the EU.

Both Hanns-Christian Klasing and Blerim Krasniqi concluded by saying that Kosovo is on the right way to move forward towards improved living conditions and later on towards European integration.