"text":"influenced by continental air masses resulting in relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall and hot, dry summers and autumns; Mediterranean and alpine influences create regional variation; maximum rainfall between October and December"
},
"Terrain":{
"text":"flat fluvial basin at an elevation of 400-700 m above sea level surrounded by several high mountain ranges with elevations of 2,000 to 2,500 m"
"text":"population clusters exist throughout the country, the largest being in the east in and around the capital of Pristina"
},
"Geography - note":{
"text":"the 41-km long Nerodimka River divides into two branches each of which flows into a different sea: the northern branch flows into the Sitnica River, which via the Ibar, Morava, and Danube Rivers ultimately flows into the Black Sea; the southern branch flows via the Lepenac and Vardar Rivers into the Aegean Sea"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> Kosovo, a neutral term, is sometimes also used as a noun or adjective as in Kosovo Albanian, Kosovo Serb, Kosovo minority, or Kosovo citizen"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> these estimates may under-represent Serb, Romani, and some other ethnic minorities because they are based on the 2011 Kosovo national census, which excluded northern Kosovo (a largely Serb-inhabited region) and was partially boycotted by Serb and Romani communities in southern Kosovo"
"text":"Albanian (official) 94.5%, Bosnian 1.7%, Serbian (official) 1.6%, Turkish 1.1%, other 0.9% (includes Romani), unspecified 0.1%; note - in municipalities where a community's mother tongue is not one of Kosovo's official languages, the language of that community may be given official status according to the 2006 Law on the Use of Languages (2011 est.)"
"text":"<br>Libri i Fakteve Boterore, burimi vital per informacione elementare. (Albanian)<br><br>The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information."
"text":"air pollution (pollution from power plants and nearby lignite mines take a toll on people's health); water scarcity and pollution; land degradation"
},
"Air pollutants":{
"carbon dioxide emissions":{
"text":"8.94 megatons (2016 est.)"
},
"methane emissions":{
"text":"0.54 megatons (2020 est.)"
}
},
"Climate":{
"text":"influenced by continental air masses resulting in relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall and hot, dry summers and autumns; Mediterranean and alpine influences create regional variation; maximum rainfall between October and December"
"text":"name derives from the Serbian \"kos\" meaning \"blackbird,\" an ellipsis (linguistic omission) for \"kosove polje\" or \"field of the blackbirds\""
}
},
"Government type":{
"text":"parliamentary republic"
},
"Capital":{
"name":{
"text":"Pristina (Prishtine, Prishtina)"
},
"geographic coordinates":{
"text":"42 40 N, 21 10 E"
},
"time difference":{
"text":"UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)"
},
"daylight saving time":{
"text":"+1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October"
"text":"previous 1974, 1990; latest (postindependence) draft finalized 2 April 2008, signed 7 April 2008, ratified 9 April 2008, entered into force 15 June 2008; note - amendment 24, passed by the Assembly in August 2015, established the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Institution, referred to as the Kosovo Specialist Chamber or \"Specialist Court,\" to try war crimes allegedly committed by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the late 1990s"
"text":"proposed by the government, by the president of the republic, or by one fourth of Assembly deputies; passage requires two-thirds majority vote of the Assembly, including two-thirds majority vote of deputies representing non-majority communities, followed by a favorable Constitutional Court assessment; amended several times, last in 2020"
"text":"civil law system; note - the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) retained limited executive powers within the Kosovo judiciary for complex cases from 2008 to 2018"
},
"International law organization participation":{
"text":"has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; non-party state to the ICCt"
},
"Citizenship":{
"citizenship by birth":{
"text":"no"
},
"citizenship by descent only":{
"text":"at least one parent must be a citizen of Kosovo"
"text":"president indirectly elected by at least two-thirds majority vote of the Assembly for a 5-year term; if a candidate does not attain a two-thirds threshold in the first two ballots, the candidate winning a simple majority vote in the third ballot is elected (eligible for a second term); election last held on 3-4 April 2021 (next to be held in 2026); prime minister indirectly elected by the Assembly"
"text":"Vjosa OSMANI-Sadriu elected president in the third ballot; Assembly vote - Vjosa OSMANI-Sadriu (Guxo!) 71 votes; Albin KURTI (VV) elected prime minister; Assembly vote - 67-30"
"text":"unicameral Assembly or Kuvendi i Kosoves/Skupstina Kosova (120 seats; 100 members directly elected by open-list proportional representation vote with 20 seats reserved for ethnic minorities - 10 for Serbs and 10 for other ethnic minorities; members serve 4-year terms)"
},
"elections":{
"text":"last held on 14 February 2021 (next to be held in 2025)"
"text":"percent of vote by party - VV 50%, PDK 16.9%, LDK 12.7%, AAK 7.1%, Serbian List 5.1%, other 8.2%; seats by party - VV 58, PDK 19, LDK 15, Serbian List 10, AAK 8, other 10; composition - NA"
"text":"Supreme Court (consists of the court president and 18 judges and organized into Appeals Panel of the Kosovo Property Agency and Special Chamber); Constitutional Court (consists of the court president, vice president, and 7 judges)"
},
"judge selection and term of office":{
"text":"Supreme Court judges nominated by the Kosovo Judicial Council, a 13-member independent body staffed by judges and lay members, and also responsible for overall administration of Kosovo's judicial system; judges appointed by the president of the Republic of Kosovo; judges appointed until mandatory retirement age; Constitutional Court judges nominated by the Kosovo Assembly and appointed by the president of the republic to serve single, 9-year terms"
},
"subordinate courts":{
"text":"Court of Appeals (organized into 4 departments: General, Serious Crime, Commercial Matters, and Administrative Matters); Basic Court (located in 7 municipalities, each with several branches)"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> in August 2015, the Kosovo Assembly approved a constitutional amendment that establishes the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Judicial Institution, also referred to as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers or \"Special Court\"; the court, located at the Hague in the Netherlands, began operating in late 2016 and has jurisdiction to try crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other crimes under Kosovo law that occurred in the 1998-2000 period"
"text":"Alliance for the Future of Kosovo or AAK [Ramush HARADINAJ]<br>Alternativa [Mimoza KUSARI-LILA]<br>Ashkali Party for Integration or PAI [Bekim ARIFI]<br>Democratic League of Kosovo or LDK [Lumir ABDIXHIKU]<br>Democratic Party of Kosovo or PDK [Memli KRASNIQI]<br>Guxo! [Donika GERVALLA-SCHWARZ]<br>Independent Liberal Party or SLS [Slobodan PETROVIC]<br>Initiative for Kosovo or NISMA [Fatmir LIMAJ]<br>New Democratic Initiative of Kosovo or IRDK [Elbert KRASNIQI]<br>New Democratic Party or NDS [Emilja REDXEPI]<br>New Kosovo Alliance or AKR [Behgjet PACOLLI]<br>Progressive Movement of Kosovar Roma or LPRK [Erxhan GALUSHI]<br>Romani Initiative [Gazmend SALIJEVCI]<br>Self-Determination Movement (Vetevendosje) or VV [Albin KURTI]<br>Serbian List or SL [Goran RAKIC]<br>Social Democratic Party of Kosovo or PSD [Shpend AHMETI]<br>Social Democratic Union [Duda BALJE]<br>Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo or KDTP [Fikrim DAMKA]<br>Unique Gorani Party [Adem HODZA]<br>Vakat Coalition or VAKAT [Rasim DEMIRI]"
"text":"centered on a dark blue field is a gold-colored silhouette of Kosovo surmounted by six white, five-pointed stars arrayed in a slight arc; each star represents one of the major ethnic groups of Kosovo: Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Gorani, Roma, and Bosniaks",
"text":"<p>Kosovo's economy has shown progress in transitioning to a market-based system and maintaining macroeconomic stability, but it is still highly dependent on the international community and the diaspora for financial and technical assistance. Remittances from the diaspora - located mainly in Germany, Switzerland, and the Nordic countries - are estimated to account for about 17% of GDP and international donor assistance accounts for approximately 10% of GDP. With international assistance, Kosovo has been able to privatize a majority of its state-owned enterprises.</p><p></p><p>Kosovo's citizens are the second poorest in Europe, after Moldova, with a per capita GDP (PPP) of $10,400 in 2017. An unemployment rate of 33%, and a youth unemployment rate near 60%, in a country where the average age is 26, encourages emigration and fuels a significant informal, unreported economy. Most of Kosovo's population lives in rural towns outside of the capital, Pristina. Inefficient, near-subsistence farming is common - the result of small plots, limited mechanization, and a lack of technical expertise. Kosovo enjoys lower labor costs than the rest of the region. However, high levels of corruption, little contract enforcement, and unreliable electricity supply have discouraged potential investors. The official currency of Kosovo is the euro, but the Serbian dinar is also used illegally in Serb majority communities. Kosovo's tie to the euro has helped keep core inflation low.</p><p></p><p>Minerals and metals production - including lignite, lead, zinc, nickel, chrome, aluminum, magnesium, and a wide variety of construction materials - once the backbone of industry, has declined because of aging equipment and insufficient investment, problems exacerbated by competing and unresolved ownership claims of Kosovo’s largest mines. A limited and unreliable electricity supply is a major impediment to economic development. The US Government is cooperating with the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) and the World Bank to conclude a commercial tender for the construction of Kosovo C, a new lignite-fired power plant that would leverage Kosovo’s large lignite reserves. MED also has plans for the rehabilitation of an older bituminous-fired power plant, Kosovo B, and the development of a coal mine that could supply both plants.</p><p></p><p>In June 2009, Kosovo joined the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the Central Europe Free Trade Area (CEFTA) in 2006, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2012, and the Council of Europe Development Bank in 2013. In 2016, Kosovo implemented the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) negotiations with the EU, focused on trade liberalization. In 2014, nearly 60% of customs duty-eligible imports into Kosovo were EU goods. In August 2015, as part of its EU-facilitated normalization process with Serbia, Kosovo signed agreements on telecommunications and energy distribution, but disagreements over who owns economic assets, such as the Trepca mining conglomerate, within Kosovo continue.</p><p></p><p>Kosovo experienced its first federal budget deficit in 2012, when government expenditures climbed sharply. In May 2014, the government introduced a 25% salary increase for public sector employees and an equal increase in certain social benefits. Central revenues could not sustain these increases, and the government was forced to reduce its planned capital investments. The government, led by Prime Minister MUSTAFA - a trained economist - recently made several changes to its fiscal policy, expanding the list of duty-free imports, decreasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) for basic food items and public utilities, and increasing the VAT for all other goods.</p><p></p><p>While Kosovo’s economy continued to make progress, unemployment has not been reduced, nor living standards raised, due to lack of economic reforms and investment.</p>"
"text":"EU pre-accession process supported progress in the telecom industry with a regulatory framework, European standards, and a market of new players encouraging development; two operators dominate the sector; under-developed telecom infrastructure leads to low fixed-line penetration; little expansion of fiber networks for broadband; expansion of LTE services (2020)"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on production and supply chains globally; since 2020, some aspects of the telecom sector have experienced downturn, particularly in mobile device production; many network operators delayed upgrades to infrastructure; progress towards 5G implementation was postponed or slowed in some countries; consumer spending on telecom services and devices was affected by large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes; the crucial nature of telecom services as a tool for work and school from home became evident, and received some support from governments"
"text":"the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) has approximately 3,500 personnel; note - Kosovo plans for the KSF to eventually number around 5,000 troops (2021)"
"text":"the KSF is equipped with small arms and light vehicles only; it relies on donations and since 2013 has received donated equipment from Turkey and the US (2021)"
"text":"service is voluntary; must be over the age of 18 and a citizen of Kosovo; upper age for enlisting is 30 for officers, 25 for other ranks, although these may be waived for recruits with key skills considered essential for the KSF<br> (2021)"
"text":"the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) has operated in the country as a peace support force since 1999; as of 2021, it numbered about 3,500 troops; KFOR also assists in developing the Kosovo Security Force"
"text":"<p>Serbia with several other states protest the US and other states' recognition of Kosovo's declaration of its status as a sovereign and independent state in February 2008; ethnic Serbian municipalities along Kosovo's northern border challenge final status of Kosovo-Serbia boundary; NATO-led Kosovo Force peacekeepers under UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo authority continue to ensure a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all Kosovo citizens; Kosovo and North Macedonia completed demarcation of their boundary in September 2008; Kosovo ratified the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro in March 2018, but the actual demarcation has not been completed</p>"
"text":"16,000 (primarily ethnic Serbs displaced during the 1998-1999 war fearing reprisals from the majority ethnic-Albanian population; a smaller number of ethnic Serbs, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians fled their homes in 2,004 as a result of violence) (2020)"
