Lajçak informs the Council of Europe and EU countries about the situation of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue

2024-06-11 17:12:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Lajçak informs the Council of Europe and EU countries about the situation

Miroslav Lajcak

The special envoy of the European Union for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajçak, said on Tuesday that he has informed the members of the Council of Europe (CoE) and the member countries of the bloc about the current state of the dialogue between the two neighboring countries.

"During my stay in Strasbourg, I also took the opportunity to interact with a number of Council of Europe officials on our respective files," Lajcak wrote on Facebook, adding that he traveled to France at the invitation of Council of Europe members.

Under Lajcak, Kosovo and Serbia in 2023 reached the Agreement towards the normalization of relations. It later became known as the Ohrid Agreement, but it too has remained largely unimplemented.

Kosovo and Serbia have been in negotiations for more than a decade, but many of the agreements they have reached have not been implemented. Both sides blame each other for lack of readiness. Kosovo is under international pressure in particular to establish an Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority.

Failure to take steps in this direction has penalized Kosovo with non-participation in the Council of Europe - the leading organization for human rights - earlier this year.

Kosovo and Serbia reached agreement on the Association in 2013 and then in 2015 on the principles for its establishment. In 2015, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo found that the agreement is not in full harmony with the Constitution.

Serbia demands that Kosovo implement the agreements reached, but the Government of Kosovo has declared against a mono-ethnic association. Earlier on Tuesday, the United States ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, said that the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is a challenge that must be overcome only with mutual recognition and nothing less.

"The conclusion of this process must be recognition between the two countries, because anything less than this does not fulfill the vision we have for a complete, free, prosperous and peaceful Europe," he said. The European Union is considering how to approach the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, as well as the potential candidates to mediate it. Lajcak has been appointed EU ambassador to Switzerland, where he should start his mandate on September 1, the bloc is thinking about finding his successor.

Among the potential candidates, diplomatic sources in the EU mention the former Foreign Minister of Finland, Pekka Haavisto, and the Danish diplomat, Peter Sorensen, who also have experience from the Western Balkans region.

EU sources say that whoever is in that post and regardless of who will be the EU's high representative for foreign policy and security, will have to insist on the implementation of all agreements that Kosovo and Serbia have so far reached dialogue./ Rel