European Union countries will agree to extend the mandate of the EU Special Envoy for Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, for another 18 months.
REL learns from diplomatic sources in Brussels that in meetings of representatives of member states no state has opposed the extension of Lajcak’s mandate.
Now only the formal part remains to be done. Thus, the mandate of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, Miroslav Lajcak, is expected to be extended until April 1, 2024.
He had started the one-year mandate initially in April 2020. Then his mandate was extended even after April 1, 2021, for 18 months.
The new extension of 18 additional months, which is expected to be formally confirmed these days in Brussels, will make Lajcaku be in this post for a total of four years.
Although dissatisfaction has been expressed by some EU countries because in recent years there has been no concrete progress in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, no country has opposed the extension of the mandate of Miroslav Lajcak and his team.
The European Union is expected this week, from the highest level, from the meeting of the European Council on 23 and 24 June, to reiterate the call that it is urgent to make progress in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia for the comprehensive normalization of relations between them.
New meetings at the level of chief negotiators in the framework of the dialogue are planned for Tuesday in Brussels, in which the EU expects a concrete agreement on the implementation of the energy agreement and possibly the signing of a declaration for the missing.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, and the head of the Serbian delegation, Petar Petkovic, were also invited for meetings.
As for the energy agreement, diplomats say it is the same agreement that was reached in 2013, was confirmed in 2015 and now the parties will only agree on its implementation plan.
The European Union is expected to play the role of facilitator for the implementation of this agreement.
However, there is still no formal confirmation for these meetings as there is a possibility that the delegations will not be able to come to Brussels on time due to the general strike that is taking place in Belgium.
For this reason, almost all flights from Brussels airport were canceled on Monday.
However, the EU hopes that during this week there will be meetings in the framework of dialogue with concrete results.
