Creating jobs to work together, across the two sides and the different communities, shall be positive. In Kosovo, from such a point of view, it seems nobody implements anything, so the situation should be better and better; the fault is primarily into political leadership, because peoples don’t have what they deserve and they should have better politicians than the ones they actually have. Common opinion is to turn away mind of people from bad politics and to make them act in a positive way to find common solutions to join together.

This is a sensitive issue, because Kosovo people have common perceptions. The needs of people, especially after the war, were basically the reconstruction and the development, which was also called, immediately after the war – from 1999 to 2004 – “to develop building Kosovo” or “to build a newborn State”, the one they usually call “State Building”. From 2004 till now, the magic word is “transition” towards a self-sustainable State, especially after the unilateral Declaration of Independence (which occurred on February 17th, 2008).

All those phases were based on the people’s needs and, as well, on the perceptions of what the people’s needs are (or should be): in the sense that, if Kosovo succeeded in the first phase, then could go to the second; if Kosovo passed successfully the second phase, than got the third; but, if Kosovo didn’t successfully pass the crucial second phase, then should remain in that one for years. The general situation even seems blocked, because of corruption, nepotism, lack of transparency and rule of law, fragility in economic structure, weaknesses in institutional capacity and gaps in assertiveness of civil society.

At the beginning, Kosovo people properly had needs to have a roof, a house, just a place to stay, after the war; now, the main needs are about economic development, since, if Kosovo will have economic development, it won’t have inter-community tensions, because the things that seem uniting people, as Albanians and Serbs, are the problems, as both parts, apart from extremism, ideology or affiliations, have the same need for job, employment and development, freedom of expression and movement, as both parts have the same aspiration to a better future rather than the negative ongoing post-conflict situation.

Just after the war, you could not find Serbs and Albanians working in the same office, having salaries and properly driving their lives; but, on the other side, if you succeed in finding them working, eventually working together in joined projects, having their salary and positive conditions for everyday life, equal rights and freedoms, you won’t find them fighting, because all the basic needs are fulfilled. They shall work together for the common interests on the same project and on the same aspiration towards a better future.

Why is political support and economic ground for projects in community building, confidence building and social reconciliation, going to be reduced since the past few years? It’s because civil society is not perceived in Kosovo as a “proper agent” to do that. The reconciliation process already went up to the political level and this should be the difference in comparison with the past, since administration and institutions seized the support for reconciliation, previously led by civil society, trusting them up to Prishtina or Belgrade, to shift the confidence building process from civil society to political institutions.