Mandl received an award from the President of Kosovo

Lukas Mandl founded the Austrian-Kosovo Society and is a parliamentary advocate for mutual understanding and future opportunities. Austria has a long tradition of non-partisan cooperation with Kosovo. The Presidential Medal of Merit was also awarded to former Austrian politicians: Wolfgang Schüssel, Friedhelm Frischenschlager, and Ulrike Lunacek.

Austrian MEP Lukas Mandl was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merits by Vjosa Osmani, President of Europe's newest state, the Republic of Kosovo.

This award was also presented to Austrians Wolfgang Schüssel, former Federal Chancellor; Ulrike Lunacek, former MEP; and Friedhelm Frischenschlager, former Minister of Defense and MEP and Head of the OSCE Office for Democratization in Kosovo. The latter, along with Lukas Mandl, received the award in the capital, Pristina, on the occasion of Kosovo's national holiday on February 17, 2025.

Ten years ago, Mandl founded the Austrian-Kosovan Society, which is part of the umbrella organization PaN (Partners of All Nations). The MEP has participated in several Kosovo election observation missions and led the EU's in 2021. He has served as chief negotiator for Kosovo for the largest political group in the European Parliament, the European People's Party (EPP).

In his parliamentary work, Mandl advocates for understanding and future opportunities in the Western Balkans. "To achieve this, the sacrifices made by the people of Kosovo for their freedom and the values ​​represented by Europe must be recognized. We must learn from history. And Kosovo has great potential for the future because there are many young people who have a great thirst for knowledge, strive for education, and work hard. Given its expertise in the field of digitalization, Kosovo can one day become something like the Silicon Valley of Europe," Mandl said.

Through his cooperation with the Republic of Kosovo, Mandl stands in a decades-long Austrian cross-party tradition. Austria was among the first states to recognize the young republic, and Austria opened its universities to Kosovars, whose language had been banned in their country's educational institutions. Numerous investments in Kosovo come from Austria, and many people with roots in Kosovo contribute significantly to the functioning of the economy and society in Austria. “Names like Alois Mock and Erhard Busek are inextricably linked to Austria’s lastingly positive Kosovo policy,” Mandl recalls.

Mandl was accompanied to the award ceremony by President Vjosa Osmani by Martin Schuster, former member of the Lower Austrian state parliament and mayor of Perchtoldsdorf, Kaldun Hana, city councillor and designated deputy mayor of Mandl's hometown of Gerasdorf, as well as by Arber Marku, Secretary General of the Austrian-Kosovan Society, and his deputy, Thomas Zinner.