Kosovo-German Seminar on Fighting Corruption
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- Published: December 8, 2015
The first seminar on "Fighting Corruption" was held by invitation of the IRZ in Pristina on 26 and 27 November 2015. Eradicating corruption is one of the conditions for Kosovo's entry to the EU.
Speakers at the bilateral seminar included, from the German side, Dr. Matthias Hartwig from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and Helmut Leithäuser, Presiding Judge at the Regional Court of Wuppertal. From Kosovo, the Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Hasan Petreni, and the coordinator of the fight against corruption at the Public Prosecutor's Office, Shqipdon Fazliu, agreed to contribute to the seminar with news of the current situation from the Kosovan point of view.
Dr. Hartwig opened the seminar with a keynote speech providing an overview of how corruption can arise in government, business and society. Helmut Leithäuser added to this lecture with a descriptive report on the daily work of a presiding judge at a major court dealing with cases of commercial law.
During the seminar, a lively discussion started up as to whether existing anti-corruption laws in Kosovo are in fact sufficient, when Kosovo is currently ranked 110 on the Transparency International corruption index. As a result of this meeting, it was established that Kosovo has managed to introduce the legal foundations for combating corruption in the country. The question remains, however, as to whether the existing laws are sufficient and whether they are strictly enforced.
Participants in the seminar, which was financed by funds from the German Federal Foreign Office, mostly included judges from the Supreme Court, research staff from the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court and staff from the Kosovo Ministry of Justice.