Kosovo Risks 166 Million Euros From Growth Plan by December

Kosovo could permanently lose a tranche of 166 million euros from the European Union’s Growth Plan by the end of December if the institutional deadlock in Pristina continues past the early parliamentary election held on June 7. The warning came on September 6 from Naim Jakaj, a senior researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), and was carried by Radio KIM and Kosovo Online, citing his statement to Ekonomija Online.

Jakaj was specific about how little time is left and how extreme the pace of work would have to be for the institutions to meet the condition.

“If that is done, yes, Kosovo can get the funds, but both the Assembly and the Government would have to work 18 hour days. On six hours of sleep. So under these circumstances the funds cannot be reached through regular work, only through extraordinary work, in which the Government, the Assembly and other institutions work around the clock rather than on a normal working schedule,” the IKD researcher said.

The deadline in question falls in December 2026, for carrying out 27 reform steps tied to the sum of 165.9 million euros. According to Jakaj, part of the damage has already been done: by the end of June this year, he said, Kosovo had already lost more than 50 million euros from the same arrangement.

“Kosovo has lost a great deal and will lose even more if this situation continues. Especially when it comes to the EU Growth Plan, funds a portion of which are donations, in other words a gift to Kosovo,” Jakaj said, adding that the lack of legitimate, functional institutions jeopardizes the ability to use European money at all.

How much money is at stake

According to Radio Free Europe, of the overall six billion euro Growth Plan package for the Western Balkans, Kosovo has been allocated 882.6 million euros, making it the largest per capita beneficiary in the region. Radio KIM cites the same overall benefit as “more than 880 million euros,” of which, according to then finance minister Hekuran Murati, 629 million euros comes in the form of loans and the rest as grants.

Of that amount, Kosovo has so far received only the pre financing installment, 61.8 million euros, or roughly seven percent of the total allocated funds. That money arrived because the Assembly had been constituted during 2025. For the rest, Pristina must demonstrate reforms carried out through progress reports, and the European Commission decides on disbursement twice a year.

The Assembly of Kosovo approved the international agreements tied to the Growth Plan on February 13, 2026, with 104 votes in favor, while five Serb List lawmakers abstained. Murati, finance minister at the time, explained that the funds are approved solely on the basis of reforms Kosovo carries out, and that most of those conditions require functional institutions, meaning an Assembly and a Government that actually adopt laws and strategies. That, according to Jakaj, is precisely the condition currently missing.

What Brussels is saying

A similar assessment has come from the European Commission, framed in far more diplomatic language. Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier repeated, in comments to Radio Free Europe, the call on political actors in Kosovo to urgently end the deadlock.

“It is essential that Kosovo’s institutions are constituted without further delay, in line with the constitutional framework,” Mercier said, adding that delays in forming the institutions risk slowing reforms and limiting Kosovo’s ability to fully draw on Growth Plan funds.

A European official who spoke to Radio Free Europe on condition of anonymity went a step further, acknowledging that the political crisis is already leaving its mark on how Kosovo is assessed in Brussels.

“The political situation in the country has inevitably affected the pace of implementation and limited progress on a number of key reforms,” the official said, adding that this has also put funding from the Reform and Growth Facility at risk.

Constitutive session on hold

The Assembly of Kosovo, elected on June 7, has still not been formally constituted. The constitutive session opened on August 6 and has since been postponed twice, at the request of Albin Kurti, leader of the winning Self Determination Movement list, who is seeking more time to reach an agreement with other parties, including on the question of the future speaker. A new date has been set for September 9 at 11 a.m. Our readers already know how those talks have unfolded, from an earlier report on the meeting between Kurti and Abdixhiku that ended without a deal, and on the vote in which Sejdiu won 74 votes.

Jakaj notes that Kosovo was among the first to submit its Reform Agenda, back in 2024, but was the last to submit a report on reforms carried out, and that in just eighteen months it has gone through three election cycles: two parliamentary votes and local elections held in two rounds. His assessment is that the past two years have seen an erosion of constitutionality, legality and the democratic process, and that even in the best case scenario following the election, the Assembly and the Government would have to work at a pace regular parliamentary work never requires, just to meet a deadline that now falls in under four months.