The Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Lipavsky, said on Thursday that he has high expectations that within the six-month mandate of the Czech Presidency, the visa liberalization process for the citizens of Kosovo will be finalized.

The Czech presidency ends its mandate at the head of the European Union on December 31 of this year.

“It is a process that consists of technical issues. The European Union will review the technical aspects very soon and I very much hope that the Czech Presidency will reach an agreement, and Kosovo will have visa liberalization. It is very difficult to predict the date. My expectations for the decision are very high, and this is part of my political agenda”, said Lipavsky at a press conference in Pristina.

He made these statements after the meeting he had with the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi.

Lipavsky said that he also contacted some officials from the Netherlands about this issue and that they agreed to analyze the technical issues and then the political ones.

The Netherlands and France are two of the EU member states that have been skeptical about this process.