L-R: Franz Fayot, Luxembourg's Minister for Development Cooperation & Humanitarian Affairs; Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, President of Kosovo; Credit: MAEE

Luxembourg's Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Franz Fayot, is currently paying a working visit to Kosovo, from 4 to 5 April 2022.

On the first day of his working visit to Kosovo, on Monday 4 April 2022, Minister Fayot met with the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu. During this exchange, Minister Fayot highlighted the convergence of the priorities of the Kosovo Government and those of Luxembourg's development cooperation programme and elaborated on the progress made in this regard.

Meetings with Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Economy Minister Dr Artane Rizvanolli enabled Minister Fayot to hold more in-depth discussions on the country's future plans and ambitions, as well as to discuss the areas in which future cooperation with Luxembourg can be envisaged.

The first day of this visit was also the occasion of the seventh joint commission between Luxembourg and Kosovo. Minister Fayot, together with Besnik Bislimi, Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, co-chaired the commission in the presence of Kosovo's Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers, Hekuran Murati, Education Minister Arbërie Nagavci, Economy Minister Dr Artane Rizvanolli and Health Minister Dr Rifat Latifi.

This joint commission enabled the Luxembourg and Kosovar delegations to take stock of the cooperation projects implemented under the second bilateral cooperation agreement (2017-20), which has been extended until the end of 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main areas of cooperation retained in this agreement, which were in line with Kosovo's national priorities, were health, vocational education and training and European integration. Both parties agreed that positive results have been achieved in all three areas and welcomed the good collaboration between the two countries dating back to the year 1999.

The commission also provided the opportunity to hold discussions on the future form of development cooperation between Luxembourg and Kosovo.

During a working lunch, Minister Fayot also met with representatives of certain multilateral organisations present in Kosovo's capital Pristina, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).