About us
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
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Branko Birač, Project Manager
Branko has almost 15 years of experience in the non-governmental sector, where he has been mostly involved in project implementation, planning, reporting, coordinating numerous teams, organizing various events, coordinating research, facilitating seminars and workshops, developing manuals and educational tools, developing projects and campaigns, etc. He has been working at CEP since 2020 as a Project Manager. His main focus was on the themes of violence prevention and especially on gender-based violence, on the promotion of gender equality, on gender issues and especially on masculinities, breaking stereotypes, combating discrimination and developing activism among youth, all in the role of the Programme manager at the Center E8. He has managed projects supported by CARE International, the Austrian Development Agency, the U.S. State Department (Global Women, Peace and Security Initiative), the U.S. Embassy, the Norwegian Embassy, the European Commission, OSCE, UNICEF, UNFPA, etc. He obtained the title of Master of Pedagogy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. He interned for a year at the Center for Infant, Child and Youth Protection and shortly worked in elementary school. He is fluent in English, and his passionate hobby is photography.
Miloš Đinđić, Lead Researcher
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Anesa Omeragić, Communication Coordinator
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Vaska Ristovska
Project Officer
Vaska Ristovska, Project Officer
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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Julijana Karai
Researcher
Julijana Karai, Researcher
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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
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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.
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Ranka Miljenović
Ranka Miljenović
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Stevo Muk
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Simonida Kacarska
Simonida Kacarska
Simonida is a Founder and Director of the European Policy Institute in Skopje, Macedonia. She holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds in the UK and has lived and studied in several European countries, including Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia and Belgium. With her experience as a civil servant, researcher, consultant, lecturer and think tank manager, Simonida has insight in both conceptual approaches to societal transformation as well as the practical worlds of public policy. She has studied and is still puzzled by the role of external actors play in democratisation processes.
Sotiraq Hroni
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Haris Ćutahija
Haris Ćutahija
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.
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Arbëresha Loxha
arberesha_loxha
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Arbëresha Loxha is a Senior Research Fellow at Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), a policy think-tank based in Prishtina. Over the last five years, Arbëresha has designed and successfully lead research focusing on economic development and welfare policy. Her research includes amongst others, topics such as public administration reform, the business environment and investments, labour market, the pension system, migration, remittances and poverty. She has strong capacities to develop (quantitative) empirical analysis which she has incorporated in many of her publications. In addition to GLPS, she is a university lecturer of Management and Economics in AAB College and as a consultant in projects including those with EBRD and National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Arbëresha holds a PhD in Economics and an Msc in Economics for Business Analysis from Staffordshire University (SU) in the United Kingdom; both funded by a joint-scholarship from Open Society Foundation and SU. Currently she is the country researcher of WeBER regional project for Kosovo.
Gregor Virant
Dr Gregor Virant is head of SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management) is a joint initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Union. He worked as an international consultant and part-time professor of public administration and administrative law at the University of Ljubljana. He served as state secretary for public administration in Slovenia from 2000-2004 and was responsible for the preparation of Slovenian public administration for accession to the EU, including the reform of civil service. From 2004 to 2008 he served as minister for public administration and carried out several successful reforms in the areas of administrative burden reduction, improvement of administrative services quality and e-government. He led negotiations with public sector trade unions for a new salary system and successfully brought it to an end by signing collective agreements in 2008. Some of the projects that were developed under his leadership were internationally recognized (one-stop-shop project for starting up a business received a UNPS award, Slovenia ranked 2nd in the EU in the area of sophistication of online services in the EU sponsored Cap Gemini survey in 2007). From December 2011 to February 2013 he served as speaker of the national parliament, from 2013 to 2014 as minister of interior, responsible also for public administration. As an international consultant, he has been cooperating with several international organizations (WB, UNDP, EC, OECD, Council of Europe) and consultancy companies, mostly on projects in the Western Balkan and Ukraine. He was head of PAR team in the Delivery unit, a UNDP project supporting the Prime Minister of Serbia, and head of an EU high-level Advisory Group for PAR in Ukraine.
Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling
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Kalypso Nicolaidis
Kalypso Nicolaidis
Kalypso Nicolaidis, currently Chair in Global Affairs at the School of Transnational Governance (EUI), holds previous positions at the University of Oxford, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and Ecole Nationale d’Admiration, Paris. She has a history of collaboration with EU institutions and served as an advisor to various governments and international organizations.
At the EUI, she teaches courses on topics such as transnational politics, responsible negotiation, and EU-Africa relations. She is actively involved in multiple initiatives, including the EUI-wide Democracy cluster, the Transnational Democracy Initiative, and the Global Peace Tech Hub. Her research spans European integration, global affairs, democratic theory, international trade, post-colonialism, and more.
Her recent books include “A Citizen’s Guide to the Rule of Law” (with Adis Merdzanovic, 2021) and “Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit” (2019). For additional information on her projects and publications, visit her website: http://kalypsonicolaidis.com
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Thomas Prorok
Thomas Prorok
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Thomas Prorok is Deputy Managing Director of the Austrian based KDZ Centre for Public Administration Research. Since more than 15 years he is working in the field of Public Administration Reform, Decentralisation and Local Governments as well as EU-Integration. Thomas is Head of the “Austrian CAF-Center” which is the European system for quality management in the public sector. And he was programme-manager of LOGON – the Local Governments Network for EU-Integration.
He studied European Law and holds a master degree in political science from the University of Vienna and is editor of manifold publications on local governments, quality management and European Integration e.g. the “LOGON Report impact of European Union on Local Authorities”.
Tiina Randma-Liiv
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Maja Handjiska-Trendafilova
Ms. Handjiska Trendafilova is the Director of ReSPA – the regional intergovernmental organization supporting public administration reforms in Western Balkans (WB). Her professional career of two decades, drawing upon regional and international multilateral experience, has chiefly been dedicated to furthering the EU integration and regional cooperation processes in WB. Heading the Programme Department in RCC, she has earlier been coordinating the Regional Economic Area and Common Regional Market agendas, as endorsed by WB Prime Ministers. Steering intergovernmental regional platforms in numerous policy areas, she has significantly contributed to: deepening regional cooperation; substantial regional mutual learning, know-how, and best practice exchange; enhanced institutional capacities, legislative and policy reforms, as well as a number of regional multilateral legal instruments, agreements, and protocols.