WeBER project is implemented by Think for Europe (TEN) members who come from 6 Western Balkans partner organisations. Find their position within the project and short bios below.
Milena Lazarević, Team Leader
Milena is Programme Director of the European Policy Centre- CEP, in charge of the overall programmatic strategy of CEP as well as developing and managing the quality assurance system and processes within the organisation. In terms of thematic focus, she is primarily responsible for the Good Governance and Europe&us programme areas. Milena is a proven expert in the fields of public administration reform, regional development and local economic development, with consultancy engagements including SIGMA/OECD, ReSPA and the World Bank. In 2014-2015, in addition to her work at CEP, she acted as the special adviser to the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of public administration reform. Prior to co-founding CEP, Milena served for six years in the Serbian civil service, as adviser for public administration reform and administrative capacities for EU accession in the EU Integration Office of the Serbian Government (SEIO) and in the Serbian Ministry of Public Administration. As a Soros scholar, she obtained her BA degree in European Studies and International Relations at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), after which she obtained an advanced MA degree in European studies at the College of Europe, on a King Baudouin Foundation scholarship. She later also graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and obtained an MA in European Administrative Law at the Law Faculty of the Belgrade University. She speaks fluently English, French, Italian and Bulgarian and has basic knowledge of German. She is married and mother of two children.
Jovana Knežević, Project Manager
Miloš Đinđić, Lead Researcher
Anesa Omeragić, Communication Coordinator
Vaska Ristovska
Project Officer
Vaska Ristovska, Project Officer
Blerina Istrefi, Project officer
Blerina Istrefi is a Master-level lawyer from the University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, and currently, she is the Project Coordinator at GLPS. She completed her Master’s studies in July 2023 in the field of “Contracts and Commercial Law”, while she began working with civil society organizations since the end of my second year of bachelor studies. Initially, she was part of the Permanent Arbitration Tribunal at the Economic Chamber of Kosovo through the project “Commercial Justice” under USAID, and after gaining experience in the commercial field with the aim of advancing in other legal areas, she shared my experience as a monitor within the organization “The Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo (HLC Kosovo)” in the Courts of Kosovo and the Specialized Chambers of The Hague. Throughout these years, she has also been part of both local and international training in the legal field.
Bora Kola, Project officer
Bora Kola has graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Tirana with Summa Cum Laude honors in the Master of Science “Public Law”. With over five years of dynamic experience, she served as a legal expert at the Ministry of Health and Social Protection from 2019 to 2023. In this role, she drafted both national legislative proposals and international agreements.
Simultaneously, from 2020 to 2023, Bora held the position of Assistant Lecturer, imparting knowledge on “Philosophy of Law” and “Public Law” at the Faculty of Law, University of Tirana. In addition, she has been engaged as consultant to the Albanian-Swiss Intellectual Property Project and the Schools for Health Project.
Bojana Pravilović, Project officer
Bojana Pravilović graduated at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, majoring in International Relations. She started working at the Institute Alternative through the Government Funded Internship Programme from January to October 2021. She is currently working as a Project Associate at the Institute Alternative in the area of public administration, public procurement and parliamentary program.
She is one of the authors of the monitoring report „Are parliamentary committees up to the task? Analysis of the performance of five parliamntary committees (October 1, 2021 – October 1, 2022). She was a research associate for following publications: „Direct procurement under magnifying glass“, „Overview of parliamentary oversight in Montenegro: From Talking to Working“, „Beneficial ownership“ of companies: How to get a better register in Montenegro“, “The Parliament passes the decision, but what is the procedure like?“, “Monitoring Report on the Freedom of Assembly in Montenegro (September 2020 – May 2021)“ and “Implementation of the New Public Procurement Law: A Chance to Leave the Vicious Circle“.
She speaks English and German.
Haris Ćutahija, Researcher
Haris Ćutahija graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at University of Sarajevo where he also gained MA degree in political science – European integration. He also holds professional qualification degree in political management from the New Bulgarian University. Has extensive experience in managing and working on various projects ranging from the European integration to youth activism and culture. He is columnist on several internet portals as well as a political analyst. He has joined the Foreign Policy Initiative BH team in March 2020 as a researcher.
Iliada Korcari, Project Officer
Iliada Korçari is a researcher and project coordinator at the Institute for Democracy and Mediation, Tirana, where she focusses on governance, public administration reform and security. Her main research interests are nationalism, statebuilding and political theory. She has worked in the public administration cultural policy sector for several years; was engaged as a freelance researcher in different research projects and has been teaching seminars of Nationalism and Identity at the Political Sciences Department of the University of Tirana, from 2015 onwards. She has a double-major in Political Sciences and Public Relations and Communication and has graduated in Political Theory, MSc. and Russian and East European Studies, MSc., being a holder of many scholarships. She is a proficient user of Albanian (native) and English, researches in Italian, Spanish and French and is a basic user of German and Bulgarian.
Julijana Karai
Researcher
Julijana Karai, Researcher
Julijana was a TEMPUS trainer for Continuing Education in European Affairs with the certificate from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium and junior researcher in the Regional IPA Project “Strengthening National Integrity Systems in the Western Balkans and Turkey and tracking developments of anti-corruption efforts”. She has been a project manager in the EU funded project “Civic Participation for Local Democracy”, under IPA Civil Society Facility and Media Programme 2014-2015 and a consultant in the UNDP Project “Developing innovative solutions for better access to local services”.
Renata Bajrami, Researcher
Renata Bajrami is a Research Fellow at Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), a policy think-tank based in Prishtina. Her primary area of research focuses on rule of law and the sector’s reform process in Kosovo. Presently, she holds the position of country researcher for Kosovo under the regional WeBER project.
Renata graduated in Law from the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Law, and was honored as a distinguished student of the Law School. She is currently pursuing her Master’s studies at the University of Prishtina. Renata was engaged as a Legal Officer in the private sector with a focus on Commercial Law. Renata served also as a Legal Advisor and Legal Associate in the private sector serving parallelly as a Legal Researcher at SENSE Cyber Research Center with a focus on Cyber Security and Data Protection for almost four years. Renata during the course of her studies was engaged in Kosovo Customs in the Sector of Representations, Sector for Advice and Procedures, and Reviewing Decisions Sector, as well as in the Ombudsperson Institution of Kosovo within the Children’s Rights Department providing here with the vast experience in the administrative procedures and state institutions interaction.
Renata has attended several courses, trainings, and clinics, including the clinic “UNHCR and the International Refugee Law” organized by UNHCR, the “Criminal Law Clinic” organized by USAID – Justice Matters Activity in Kosovo, training “Education on Justice” organized by Infinite Academy, also she attended a summer school on Transitional Justice organized by Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo, and other activities organized by other entities.
Renata is a proficient user of Albanian (native) and English language, and a basic user of the Turkish language.
Dragana Jaćimović, Researcher
Dragana Jaćimović is a Public Policy Researcher at Institute Alternative, researching and monitoring in the areas of public administration reform and rule of law. She joined the IA team in January 2018. She is in charge of public policy analysis and project coordination. She is also member of the National Council for fight against corruption. Currently, Dragana holds the position of country researcher for Montenegro, while during the previous WeBER 2.0 project she covered position of project officer. Dragana holds a Bachelor and Specialist degree in Political Science, International relations. Speaks English and Turkish.
Dea Fetiu, Research Assistant
Dea Fetiu joined GLPS in October 2023, as a Project Manager. Before joining GLPS, she worked as a research assistant in Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, and was engaged in the editorial team for a research project of medica mondiale. During her work in KCSS she has published papers on regional cooperation, reconciliation, and women peace and security agenda. Her research fields of interest include: gender studies, transitional justice and peacebuilding, anticorruption, and rule of law. Furthermore, she is a passionate human rights activist.
Dea is a law student in the University of Prishtina, and during her studies she was participated in the public international law competition Philip C. Jessup and the international commercial arbitration moot Willem C. Vis.
Stefan Radojcic, Project Assistant
Stefan joined the CEP team in January 2022 as a project assistant. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree at the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Democracy and democratization at the same faculty. During his studies, he attended numerous workshops, seminars and training courses, and participated in conducting two public opinion polls. He is an alumnus of CRTA, Libek, and IFDT. He is the co-author of a study on the provision of public services during a pandemic. His fields of interest include political theory, qualitative and quantitative research of democracy, macroeconomics and pop culture of the 2000s. He speaks English and is currently learning German.