33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

17 2,000 officials from a number of European countries, would oversee police, judicial, and customs activities in Kosovo. In November 2009, in what many viewed as a test of its commitment to democracy, Kosovo held its first elections since independence. International monitors determined that the process, conducted on the municipal level, was peaceful and, in general, fair, despite the refusal of many of the remaining Serbs to participate. By 2010 a new World Bank l oan promised to address the problem of real estate registry (a proper system was needed to ensure transparent property transactions and to protect minority property rights), but a June report of the Council of Europe e xpressed continuing international concern over the wider judicial reform that would be needed to establish the rule of law. T he same concerns informed the decision of the EU to extend the Eulex mission for two years, through mid-2012. The July 2010 decision of the International Court of Justice t o recognize Kosovo‘s declaration of independence was expected to strengthen the determination of the Kosovar Albanian government and the Eulex authorities, as well to consolidate Kosovo‘s sovereignty w ithin its declared borders—largely if not unanimously recognized by the international community. Meanwhile, the status of the small Serb minority remained unsettled, and the government in Pristina c ontinued to face difficulty in establishing authority over the Serb-dominated areas north of the Ibër (Ibar) River. O bviously unsettled as well were relations with Serbia, still a major trading partner. However, Serbia‘s support of a UN r esolution passed in September 2010, which called for EU-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo, offered some hope for the normalization of relations. Kosovo‘s level of unemployment c ontinued to exceed 40 percent, but economic growth p ersisted—although at a reduced pace given the international financial crisis that began in 2008 and the attendant drop in remittances sent back from abroad. Still missing was sizeable direct foreign investment, which at some point will be needed to replace the substantial aid—more than $3 billion since 1999—provided by the United States a nd Europe. A young population and a variety of mineral deposits are nonetheless resources to be tapped if Kosovo‘s political leadership can respond to the challenges of domestic reform and international accommodation. In November 2010 the Assembly of Kosovo overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence in the country‘s minority government, led by Prime Ministe r Hashim Thaçi o f the Democratic Party of Kosovo ( Partia Demokratike e Kosovës; PDK), prompting the dissolution of the body and the scheduling of elections. The fall of the government followed the September resignation of Pres. Fatmir Sejdiu, who in October withdrew his Democratic League of Kosovo (Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës; LDK) from the coalition that had governed Kosovo since independence. The elections , held in December 2010, returned the PDK to power, and Thaçi remained prime minister. Although there were reports of widespread voting irregularities, a revote in January 2011 affirmed the earlier results. Unrest continued in northern Kosovo throughout 2011, as ethnic Serbs, with the support of Serbia, created parallel institutions in defiance of the Kosovar government in Pristina. EU police and some 6,000 NATO t roops maintained an uneasy peace in the region, and tensions sometimes erupted into violence. Nevertheless, negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia continued throughout the year in an effort to normalize relations between them. Although the unemployment r ate in Kosovo approached 50 percent and organized crime a nd corruption remained endemic p roblems, the European Commission d etermined in late 2012 that the country had made sufficient progress to begin negotiations for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement— a critical step toward accession to the EU. I n April 2013 Kosovo and Serbia reached a milestone agreement that granted a degree of autonomy to ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo in