Getoar Mjeku

Getoar Mjeku (; born September 28, 1987) is a Kosovar Albanian lawyer, writer and politician, and current deputy minister of economy of the Republic of Kosovo. He previously served as deputy minister of industry, entrepreneurship and trade.

Mjeku received his higher education at Texas Lutheran University and Southern Methodist University in the United States. He has an active law license in Texas, and is a member of the International Law Section. He has practiced in the areas of commercial and administrative law in the United States and Kosovo, and has written about international law and the Albanian language.

As a lawyer and member of the Vetëvendosje Movement, Mjeku has been active in strategic litigation against abuses in publicly owned enterprises, environmental protection, and the energy sector. A deputy minister, he has handled legislative initiatives, trade and investment matters, and state-owned enterprises. He was a principal author of the Law on the Sovereign Fund of the Republic of Kosova, a wealth management and investments entity.

Mjeku is a proponent of plain language and a critic of Albanian language regulation. He maintains a blog about language, culture and law.

Early life and education Getoar Mjeku was born in Pristina, Kosovo, to a middle-class family with ties to Gjilan and the Llap region. His given name, Getoar, is a portmanteau or initialism with the names of major Albanian dialects and sub-ethnic groups. He explains his family name as a word derived from the Latin medicus, meaning medical doctor.

Mjeku attended Ismail Qemali elementary and middle school and completed grades 9 through 11 at Mehmet Akif College in Pristina.

On 25 August 2019, Mjeku officially joined the Vetëvendosje Movement, just days after the Assembly dissolved itself. He stood as a candidate in the parliamentary elections held that year, with a focus on the rule of law and economic development. He gathered 4527 votes — more than most candidates, but insufficient to gain a seat in the 7th legislature.

After the first Kurti government was sworn in in February 2020, Mjeku served as legal adviser to the minister of economy, employment, trade, industry, entrepreneurship and strategic investments, Rozeta Hajdari. In this position, he prepared key government documents, including decisions to remove the directors of 10 out of 17 enterprises owned by the central government, to address mismanagement of public property, and to impose reciprocity measures in trade relations with Serbia. He also advised the minister on matters of energy, private sector development, and COVID-19 management. Mjeku primarily supervised state-owned enterprises, which include the nation's largest energy and mining operators, the postal office, the leading telecom provider, railways, and water utility and irrigation companies. He co-lead the working group that drafted the Law on the Sovereign Fund of the Republic of Kosova, a strategic wealth management and investments entity, hailed as a transformation reform for Kosovo's economy.

Views on language Mjeku is known as a proponent of Albanian language reform, criticizing the language policy imposed by the communist regime in Albania and maintained for political expedience during the transition to democracy. He calls for writers to freely use the Gheg lexicon, the 'me+' infinitive, and a reduced participle, which reflect the spoken language of the majority of Albanians. His public speech is marked by his use of the Gheg dialect, while his non-fiction writing varies between the Elbasan-based standard and a modified Tosk standard.

Mjeku has also encouraged about plain language writing. He has adopted techniques taught by his professor Bryan Garner to Kosovar legislation and court documents, He has also translated selected writings of George Orwell, including his essay on "Politics and the English language".