8/09/2017
Today, September 8th, took place the second regular meeting of the Directors of the Steering Committee of the Project "Kosovo institutions’ additional support in fighting organized crime, corruption and violent extremism". This project is implemented under the IPA’s program and is being implemented by the European Union Office in Kosovo via the company B & S Europe based in Brussels. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the progress made regarding the implementation of the four component components of this project.
As known, the 4th component of this project deals specifically with the Prevention and Fighting of Violent Extremism, for the implementation of which the Kosovar Center for Security Studies (KCSS) has been sub-contracted. As a result, as part of the reporting team, Mentor Vrajolli, Senior Researcher and KCSS Secretary, was also present. He reported to the audience on the progress of the implementation of the activities of Component 4 where, among others, four activities are included such as: 1) Support on Monitoring, 2) Support on Coordination, 3) Support on capacity building and 4) Citizens’ awareness activities in relation to this phenomenon.
He noted that during this quarterly KCSS has managed to successfully organize 3 public discussions, 2 closed discussions and 3 debates with gender communities. Moreover, key topics of these discussions were inter-institutional coordination as well as comprehensive modalities in combating the phenomenon of violent extremism in Kosovo. Also, the participants were provided a brief overview of the next report that the KCSS will publish through this project regarding the monitoring of social networks and the identification of various websites suspected of spreading extreme hate speeches in the Albanian speaking area (Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, South Serbia and Diaspora).
During this reporting, Vrajolli has also elaborated on the next activities that are expected to be implemented over the next three months, which include, among others, organizing other debates in municipalities; raising awareness through lectures in 12 high schools; as well as providing support to the Security Council Secretariat in drafting the annual monitoring report on the implementation of the National Strategy and its Action Plan for the Prevention and Fighting of Violent Extremism in Kosovo which leads to terrorism.
The meeting took place at the offices of the Financial Intelligence Unit. Various institutional officials from the State Prosecutor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Kosovo Police were present.
