The European envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajčák, met today with Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi.
Miroslav Lajčák stated that the purpose of his visit to Pristina today was to discuss refocusing on the normalization process and the concrete steps that need to be taken in this regard.
Lajčák said that in his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, they talked about accelerating the Basic Agreement and also discussed the Growth Plan.
“The second issue we discussed was the Growth Plan, which is a new financial instrument from the EU offering 6 billion euros in investments.”
“But for Kosovo and Serbia, this disbursement of funds is conditional upon constructive engagement in the dialogue, and I am the one who must make this assessment for constructiveness. That’s why we discussed how to achieve a positive evaluation,” Lajčák explained.
In a press conference, Lajčák also talked about the report that the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has sent to member states regarding whether or not to lift the measures.
“As far as I know, this report will be discussed tomorrow in the Political and Security Committee, and it depends on the outcome of the discussion.”
“I have made my position clear regarding the measures since September when I recommended that they be lifted. But as I said, I am not part of this process; this is a decision of the member states. My personal stance is that they should be lifted. Prime Minister Kurti is out of the country, so we did not have a meeting,” he declared.
He also spoke about the Ibar Bridge, saying that an uncoordinated opening could lead to incidents and further complicate the dialogue situation.
In an interview, Lajčák said that the opening of the Bridge is subject to agreements reached in Brussels and that the opening should be done in a coordinated and agreed manner. The Slovak envoy stated that it is never good for partners to be surprised.
He expressed readiness to put it on the agenda of the next meeting in Brussels if Kosovo and Serbia show willingness.
“We have continuously called on Kosovo and Serbia to address issues in dialogue and refrain from uncoordinated actions. It is never good if international partners are surprised. In this case, an uncoordinated opening of the main Ibar Bridge could lead to security incidents and further complicate the normalization process. The opening of the bridge in Mitrovica is subject to two agreements within the EU-mediated dialogue – from 2015 and 2016.
Although I agree that the bridge should be opened and we have been requesting it for a long time, it should be done in a coordinated and agreed manner. Any decision regarding the bridge should first be considered and taken in dialogue. If the parties are interested, I will gladly put this issue on the agenda of the next chief negotiators’ meeting,” Lajčák said.
Lajčák’s visit comes after his meeting in Greece last night with the Serbian Prime Minister, Miloš Vučević.
“I briefed him on the latest developments in the dialogue and spoke about EU-Serbia relations,” Lajčák wrote in a post on his X account.
After his visit to Kosovo, the European diplomat will meet the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vučić, on Wednesday afternoon in Belgrade.
Regarding the reason for Lajčák’s meeting with the Serbian Prime Minister and President, but not with the Prime Minister and President of Kosovo, political analyst Blerim Burjani commented.
He calls this a technical agenda, adding that Kurti-Lajčák relations are cold.
“It is a technical agenda that belongs to the Deputy Prime Minister’s level, considering that Bislimi is politically subordinate to the Prime Minister, so nothing different is expected. Kurti goes to the presidential level because the dialogue in Serbia is led by Vučić, so a meeting at this level is appropriate. But regarding the Kurti-Lajčák-Borrell relations, they are internally cold and lack goodwill,” Burjani stated.
