Who is Miroslav Lajcak, the EU's special envoy for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue?

Miroslav Lajcak is expected to be appointed the EU's special envoy for negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Outgoing Minister of Slovakia Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcak is reported to be the European Union's special envoy for negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Miroslav Lajcak, born March 20th 1963 in the town of Poprud in Slovakia, has a long career as diplomat and representative not only of his country but also of the EU.

A law graduate at the Comenius University in Bratislava, he continued his studies at the European Centre for Security Studies in Germany.

Until the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, he was a member of the Communist Party and joined the Czechoslovakian Foreign Ministry in 1988, while in 1991-1993 he was appointed ambassador to Moscow, where he also conducted his doctoral studies for international relations.

After serving as head of the cabinet of Slovakia's prime minister, Joseph Moravik for a year, in 1994 ambassador is appointed to Japan, and during 2001-2005, Lajcak has remained in Belgrade as Slovakia's ambassador to Serbia, Albania and Macedonia, as well as the overseer of the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006.

On 30 June 2007, Lajcak became Bosnia and Herzegovina's High Representative to the EU, which he held until March 2009.

On January 26th 2009, he became Slovakia's foreign minister in Prime Minister Robert Fico's cabinet until July 2010, and in December 2010 was appointed as Head Manager for the Western Balkans for Russia at the European Foreign Action Service until April 2012.

He currently holds the post of foreign and simultaneously foreign minister-in-chief of the Slovak prime minister, and after assuming the presidency of the EU Council from Slovakia, he is one of the key figures for the realisation of priorities.