Lajcak warns that next week there may be important Kosovo- Serbia

Asked by Euronews, Lajcak did not specify what concrete. He also spoke of a third possible meeting between Albin Kurti and Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels before the summer.

Unresolved issues between Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia have recently turned into a hot topic -- do you see any hope for Northern Macedonia at the EU Summit in June?

There is no doubt that Northern Macedonia will start membership negotiations, and we hope that this will happen this June. You know that the European Union makes decisions based on consensus, so we're working hard that the French Presidency, or even President Macro himself and European leaders like President Charlie Michelle, but many others are trying to help both sides find a common solution that would allow both North Macedonia and Albania to start negotiations this June.

You personally believe that Albania and North Macedonia deserve to start membership negotiations?

I have no doubt about it. They have met all conditions. And of course they're ready. I must honestly admit that the problem lies with our side with the European Union since we still don't have consensus with the entire bloc, but everyone knows that and we're really working hard to have this union.

The government in Skopje has repeatedly repeated that these disputes are killing the EU's credibility in the region, do you share the same opinion?

We cannot be proud of the speed with which things are moving in terms of EU integration. That's a fact. And the EU promised the region 19 years ago that it would become part of the European Union, and in these 19 years only Croatia has become a full-fledged member.

And only 2 out of 6 countries are negotiating, while the other 4 are still waiting. So there's no room for doubt here, we need to try harder. Both sides. When the region brings results then the EU must also produce results. And the matter of trust. The EU continues to remain the only option and the most positive option for the future of the Balkan region. There is no good future for the Balkans that the European one and I would actually suggest that we criticize each other less and co-operate more and guarantee that it happened.

What about dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina? Have you seen progress?

But there's actually been a lot of work done and there's been progress, even though this hasn't been so obvious, but the truth is that two chief negotiators are meeting every month in Brussels and we're discussing a number of concrete issues, like implementing past agreements that have been adopted a few years ago but haven't been implemented, we're also discussing today's issues to make sure that they don't turn into potential problems and that we're actually working on the future of the normalisation agreement.

We'll have another meeting between the chief negotiators next week. Hopefully, we will be able to announce about a very important agreement, and I am also hoping to make both leaders together in Brussels for the third summit before summer holidays.

We've seen some positive signals regarding visa liberalisation for Kosovo. Could it happen this year?

Again, there is a very steadfast opinion among EU member states that Kosovo had to give visa liberalisation long ago. There is no doubt that Kosovo has met all conditions to remove the visa system, and the problem lies again in the lack of consensus. But I can say that this problem is rising among member states much more frequently, during meetings of different European organs, so I think it's close. I can't say a date, but she's coming and I'm saying that for sure.