Lumir Abdixhiku, the Executive Director of Pristina-based RIINVEST research institute, notes that the Transparency International’s Corruption Index has ranked Kosovo as 110^th out of 175 countries and territories. “Kosovo is ranked in the same position as four years ago and this explains our stalemate. In four years, our politicians failed to take any serious steps to prevent and reduce corruption that derives from institutions that they lead … Our country has been stuck on the same level for four years and this explains emigration, the lack of visa liberalization and the stalemate. We have lost four years and corruptive behavior has become a common social norm that not only produces a bad and frightening image of Kosovo in the eyes of foreign investors (…) but also strengthens the seizure of the state by keeping in power the very same people who are responsible for producing corruption.”