EU Invests €3.3 million for Kosovo Returnees

The European Commission has launched a €3.3 million project to encourage those who have left Kosovo to return, and assist with their reintegration.

The Kosovo Liaison Office of the Commission in a press release on Thursday announced that the new project will be implemented in close cooperation with the Ministry for Communities and Return.

According to this statement the “main aim of this project is to support the sustainable return of refugees and internally displaced persons.”

“Around 130 refugees and internally displaced families are expected to return to four selected municipalities: Istog/Istok, Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje, Peja/Pec and Gjilan/Gnjilane,” the statement reads.

Since 1999, when the United Nations administration was set up in Kosovo after the armed conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, more than 100,000 Kosovo Serbs are considered as refugees in Serbia, or internally displaced persons within Kosovo.

Only a small number of Serb refugees have returned to Kosovo after authorities declared its formal independence from Serbia on February 17. The UN Development Programme, UNDP, has criticised the Kosovo government’s programmes and policies on returnees.

The European Union is the largest donor in post-conflict Kosovo. The European Commission promised €500 million at a Donors Conference for Kosovo on July 11, in Brussels.

This project is a continuation of EU assistance to the sustainable return and reintegration of displaced persons in Kosovo, with the ultimate aim of bringing the return process closer to municipal authorities.

“The project will be implemented through the UNDP, who will provide co-funding of €400,000,” the statements reads.