Within the scope of joint project of the European Union and Council of Europe against Economic Crime (PECK), Kosovo has been assessed for the second time, based on the fifth round of assessment of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), which has been launched on 1 January 2017 in its member states.

From this assessment, the Team of international experts of the European Council has prepared the Evaluation Report on compatibility of Kosovo with international standards in the field of anti-corruption, the Report whose objective is assessment of the effectiveness of the measures adopted by the authorities of Kosovo to prevent corruption and promote integrity in top executive functions in central governments and law enforcement agencies (police and customs).

The reference standards and covered themes included the following:

• Fundamental safeguards and corruption prevention in respect of the judiciary (judges and prosecutors), police, public administration, members of Parliament, financing of political parties and election campaigns and public procurement;
• Criminal law, law enforcement and criminal procedure: offences and sanctions, investigation and criminal procedure, confiscation and other deprivation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime, immunities from investigation, prosecution or adjudication of corruption offences;
• International cooperation.

The Assessment Team carried out an on-site visits and interviewed representatives of the institutions listed in this Evaluation Report.  Further, the Report was also based on replies to the questionnaire drafted based on standards of fifth round of evaluation, addressed to relevant Kosovo authorities, as well as reviewing of the legal framework, policy framework, institutional framework and systems in place to prevent and combat corruption as well as examined the capacity, implementation and the effectiveness of systems and mechanisms in place.

As a monitoring constitutional institution, the Ombudsperson Institution (OI) has been a part of this evaluation process. The Report ascertains but at the same time specifically recommends and draws attention on OI powers and responsibilities.

In its full and final format (in the form in which it has been forwarded from PECK II) the Assessment Report on compatibility of Kosovo with international standards in the field of anti-corruption (AC), drafted by Team of International Experts of the Council of Europe within the scope of PECK II, can be found on OI web page, in the following link: LINK

Nevertheless, just for the record, Kosovo has been evaluated for the first time in June 2013, following the methodology and the first, second, third and the forth GRECO’s assessment, while the follow-up of this assessment was conducted between June 2013 and November 2014. (The resulting assessment and follow-up reports are available on the Council of Europe website www.coe.int/