Page 59 - Central & Southeast Outlook 2020

climate change.
● Connecting Europe, to ensure that in the areas of transport, energy and digital,
Europe is better connected so that countries like Croatia in particular will be
involved in all European networks
● Europe to protect — internal and external security, in areas from illegal
migration to terrorism.
● A strong, agile, assertive European Union on a global scale that projects its
model where one wants to embrace it, and which protects its member states and has an impact on global processes.
A total of 161 events are planned during Croatia’s EU council presidency, including a summit of EU and Southeast European leaders.
However, it is most likely that the UK’s impending exit from the 28 member bloc will continue to overshadow EU business well into the Croatian presidency.
Domestically, one of the biggest issues that needs to be tackled is worker shortages, especially in the seasonal tourism and construction sectors. Zagreb had to raise quotas for this year following pressure from employers associations as employers in the tourism and construction sector in particular were unable to recruit enough staff to fill vacant positions.
Croatia faces acute shortages of skilled labour that need to be addressed sustainably, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) told Croatia in its latest Transition Report. The development bank warns that tightening of labour market conditions and an “increasingly difficult” demographic profile are making it steadily harder for employers to fill highly qualified positions in particular.
2.5 ​Politics - Kosovo
Kosovo is expected to enter 2020 with a new government after the country held a snap general election in October 2019.​Elections were held after outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned in July 2019 to appear at The Hague-based war crime court investigating crimes committed by former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against ethnic Serbs during the Kosovo independence war 1998-1999.
The new government is set to be led by formerly opposition parties Vetevendosje and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) which won the largest share of the vote in the October 2019 elections, with Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti as prime minister.
However, as of mid-December the talks between the two parties had stalled as the LDK insists on appointing Kosovo’s next president, who will be elected by the parliament in 2021 after the mandate of Hashim Thaci expires. Vetevendosje opposes this plan.
The main task of the new government is to continue normalisation talks with Serbia, from which the country seceded in 2008. The talks have been on ice since November 2018 when Haradinaj’s government imposed 100% tariffs on imports of Serbian and Bosnian products. Belgrade, as well as the EU and the US, has called for the tariffs to be
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