For yet another year, the Prishtina School of Politics has the pleasure to take part in the World Forum for Democracy / Forum mondial de la Démocratie.

Participants from our School are Blin Berdoniqi, Shpetim Shujaku, Mrika Nikqi and Valmira Morina.
The forum is being organized for the tenth time at the premises of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg during 8 - 10 November 2021.

On the topic "Can democracy save the environment?" The forum contains plenary sessions and discussions that address topics such as: green entrepreneurship, citizens' assemblies on climate, environmental justice, sustainable cities, human rights for the environment, communities in aid of nature conservation, public-private partnerships for the environment and environmental education.

Since the start of the Forum, the Prishtina School of Politics also had the great opportunity to visit the European Court Of Human Rights (ECHR).

Furthermore, participants had the opportunity to visit the Consulate of Kosovo in Strasbourg and were welcomed by H.E. Ambassador Mimoza Ahmetaj.

Impact of the COVID19 pandemic in regards to socio-economic and political developments - these were the topics covered in the last two focus groups organized by PIPS with CSOs, media, government representatives, chamber representatives etc.
These focus groups are part of the project funded by the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and USAID.

PIPS will publish two policy studies on these impact areas with discussion findings from these focus groups as well.

On October 26, PIPS held a roundtable discussion on "Turning the page towards a new chapter? Building trust between Kosovo and Serbia".

The discussion gathered politicians, former ambassadors and also Mrs. Sonja Biserko from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. The participants discussed the issue on the normalization of Kosovo-Serbia relations and the possibilities of building trust between the two countries.

The Prishtina Institute for Political Studies (PIPS) has launched a political education program for young people from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities in Kosovo with the support of the Council of Europe Office under the ROMACTED Program.

On 21 October we held the first introductory meeting with the 25 participants of the first cycle of the program.

On October 14, PIPS held a roundtable discussion on "European Reform Agenda II", during which our latest publication "The beginning of a new ERA!" was presented.

Given the importance that ERA II now has on the path to EU integration and the necessary reforms for Kosovo, it is critical to overcome the obstacles previously experienced, therefore this publication provides an overview of the implementation of ERA 1 and provides recommendations for the implementation of ERA II.

On 13 September PIPS held a closed discussion on "Balkan Regionalism 2021: SEFTA and Open Balkan" with stakeholders from the government, opposition and experts.

This event brought to the table the views of the parties on the SEFTA and Open Balkan agreements, and confronted the attitudes of key actors to measure the possibility for a unified stance of these actors on regional agreements.

This discussion stressed cautious action regarding:
- Unilateral initiative and positions vis-a-vis the need to strengthen interstate alliances and not to threaten the loss of strategic allies;
- Tendency to see the European Integration process as mutually exclusive from regional integration;
- Articulation of positions and unilateral initiative along with the need to create and strengthen interstate alliances and not to threaten the loss of strategic allies;
- Regional initiatives as a response to the stagnation of the region's European Integration process;
-The security of regional partnerships without equality of the parties and dealing with the past.