Lajcak in Kosovo today

The special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, will be in Kosovo today, where he will talk with Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, Kosovo's chief negotiator in the Brussels dialogue.

Lajcak has stayed in Belgrade yesterday, where he met with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, with whom he has also discussed future steps in normalising relations with Kosovo.

He has written on the X platform that at the meeting with Vuciqi, the focus of the discussions has been the strategic perspective for 2024, but also made a balance for reaching and blocking dialogue.

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has called for cancellation of the Kosovo Central Bank decision (BQK) to ban the use of the Serbian dinar for cash payments in Kosovo. He added that he had a <x1 constructive and very useful” with Lajcak.

“I stressed the necessity for establishing the Association of Serb majority municipalities for holding local elections in northern Kosovo urgently, and requested support from the European Union for stopping further provocations coming from Pristina”, Vuciq wrote in his account at the Instagram after meeting with Lajcak.

According to EU spokesman Peter Stano, the EU's special representative for dialogue is conducting these visits to Belgrade and Pristina in an effort to advance dialogue.

“Talks with President Vuciq in Belgrade and with Kosovo counterparts in Pristina are part of his mandate, are part of his work and his continued efforts towards helping both sides advance dialogue”, Stano stressed.

By contrast, Brussels called on authorities in Kosovo on Monday to postpone implementing the decision to prevent the use of the Serbian dinar on Kosovo territory, so that a solution can be found within the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

The Kosovo government has argued that the CEC's decision is in line with the Constitution of Kosovo, but the QUINT has said that this decision <x0.g. concerns about the impact in particular on Serb majority communities”.