Just half an hour drive north of Skopje and we’re at the border with Kosovo; an hour later we arrive in the new country’s capital, Pristina. We’re here a day before Kosovo’s 16th birthday. The country formally came into existence on March 9th, 2008 rising out of the ashes of the destruction caused by the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic’s attempt at ethnic cleansing of Kosovo’s Albanian population.

Today, Kosovo is a thriving democracy recognized as a sovereign nation by more than 100 countries with the holdouts mostly being countries not wanting to get on the wrong side of Russia, not least Serbia which has only reluctantly given up its territorial claims. Spain is also a holdout, apparently because of concerns that recognition of Kosovo might give the wrong idea to Catalan separatists!

Kosovo & Serbia

Ethnic Albanians make up most of Kosovo’s population, Muslim but more secular than religious. Several municipalities in the northern part of the country are predominantly Serbian (and so Orthodox Christian) and ethnic friction is still a security challenge for the new nation. Kosovo has adopted the Euro as its official currency but in the predominantly Serbian municipalities, the Serbian dinar is used although banks in Kosovo refuse to accept the dinar. As a much of the population of the Serbian region of the country are elderly and depend on pensions paid from Serbia, Kosovo’s refusal to recognize the dinar has exacerbated the tensions with its neighbour. Since 2008 many attempts have been made to reach an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, predominantly around the status of Kosovos Serbian minority, most recently the 2023 Ohrid Agreement. Under this Agreement, Serbia’s agreed not to block Kosovo joining international institutions, would recognize Kosovo symbols such as vehicle registration plates. In exchange, Kosovo would grant more autonomy to the predominantly Serbian municipalities in northern Kosovo. As we hear in Belgrade, Kosovo Serbia is still waiting for Kosovo to keep its side of the deal

There is also a small Catholic population - Mother Teresa’s family were from Pristina, Kosovo’s capital - and since the nation came into being, the massive “Sanctuary of Saint Teresa of Calcutta”l has been built

At the US Embassy

We hear from the Ambassador and his staff*, of how Kosovo has developed over the past 16 years and the challenges it still faces - corruption, an independent judiciary, tensions with Serbia and Russian disinformation largely routed through Serbia, the poor, outdated energy infrastructure and a “brain drain” particularly of young people .

The Ambassador tells us that Kosovo is the “poorest country in Europe” but that largely depends on definition (Moldova usually claims that distinction). Ultimately, like its neighbour to the south, Kosovo would like to become an EU member, but that’s still years away

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*Jeffrey Hovenier - Ambassador

Noel Bauer - Director, USAID

Cynthia Cook - Political Unit Chief