H. E. Hashim Thaci, President of Kosovo,

Madam Albulena Haxhiu, Chairperson of Legislative Committee, Assembly of Kosovo,

H.E. Natalie Apostolova, EU Special Representative,

H.E. Ruairí O'Connell, Ambassador of the UK,

H.E. Piero Cristoforo SARDI, Ambassador of the Republic of Italy,

Ulrika Richardson, UNDP Kosovo Resident Representative,

Drago Kos, Chairman of the OECD Working Group on Anti-bribery (OECD),

Luca Trifone, the Italian Anti-Corruption National Authority,

Director Havolli,

Ladies and gentlemen.

It is my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of Switzerland to the launch of Regional Conference of Anti-Corruption Agencies achievements, challenges and the way forward

Switzerland, in partnership with the Danish International Development Agency, are proud sponsors of the Support to Anti-corruption Efforts in Kosovo project implemented by UNDP.

We all know that corruption is bad, that corrupters and corrupted are delinquents who deserve to be punished, that corruption distorts political and economic decision, damaging rule of law and finally being detrimental to citizens.

We all know that.

We also know that years of statements by local authorities and international partners didn’t really impact on reducing corruption.

Why that?

I see two main reasons:

1.    The first one is an environment inductive to corruption, including for example: inadequate legislation, poor qualification of civil servants, insufficient salaries of the public sector, misuse of strong solidarities (family, clan and party, etc.). The authorities, with our backing, should support any steps in order to change this environment.

2.    The second one is related of the lack of clear effective support to police, prosecutors and judges, in order to guarantee them independence and safety while enquiring, incriminating and condemning people involved in corruption and abuse of power. Kosovo citizen don’t need other words condemning corruption but deserve results as strong evidences of an effective fight against corruptions. We expect the top political leadership of Kosovo to demonstrate this support and this political will. It will not be easy, results could be unpleasant, as the country is small and everybody know each other. Without this support, any strategy will be useless.

All this will take time and will be painful. But other countries started this process.

Said that, I am not saying that all politicians and high officials as corrupt. Most people enter public service to do good and to improve the lives of their citizens. It is important to protect and safeguard the reputation of honest officials by maintaining an anti-corruption system by which the bad apples get weeded out. In this context, the ongoing vetting process in Albania is quite an interesting exercise.

I look forward to and anticipate progress in Kosovo’s fight against corruption, with Switzerland support through the UNDP SAEK and other projects.

I thank you for your attention.