The process of Kosova’s final status, expected to conclude within the year 2006, has been placed in the focus once more during an International Conference held in Tirana on 21 October. The Conference “Kosova’s final status and the Balkan’s security”, organised by the Institute for International Studies (ISN) brought together scholars, politicians academicians from the Balkans, the United States, the Security Council of the United Nations, the European Union, the Contact Group and their Albanian counterparts. Mr. Besnik Mustafaj, Foreign Minister of Albania, attended the Conference. In his speech Mr. Mustafaj stressed particularly the need to not postpone the negotiations for the final status of Kosova and underlined the importance of a process of active negotiations.

Aware of the fact that the process of negotiations and the modalities employed to define Kosova’s final status will have their impact on the future of Kosova and security in the region, the participants exchanged views about some of the future challenges in the progress. Discussions centred on three pillars: a) the views of the Balkan actors on Kosova’s final status; b) the views of the international actors on Kosova’s final status; and c) the issues of democratic governance and market economy that may emerge following the resolution of Kosova’s final status.