Three-way Brussels Meeting Begins

Kosovo and Serbia's chief negotiators, Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkovovic, are holding a trilateral meeting in Brussels with European Union envoy for dialogue Miroslav Lajcak.

The trilateral meeting began on Thursday afternoon, following bilateral meetings the bloc's envoy held with representatives of the two countries initially for implementation of past agreements on the road towards normalising relations.

This is the first trilateral meeting after more than three months, as at recent meetings Bislim and Petkov had failed to reach compliance with the topics of the meetings.

EU spokesman Peter Stano, speaking the day before meetings under dialogue, had said holding a joint meeting would depend on the will of the parties.

At the last meeting in September, Lajcak failed to persuade Bislim and Petkov to hold trilateral meetings, as they had disagreements about topics that they would like to discuss.

Regarding topics expected to be clarified at meetings in Brussels, Stano said they have to do with the need to implement obligations from the current dialogue, including the Agreement on the road to normalisation of relations, which Kosovo and Serbia agreed to at the beginning of 2023.

“Agent is the same as it was in the past, that is, the need for an urgent start to implement obligations from the dialogue. The need for the urgent start of implementation of the Ohrid Agreement and the need for both Kosovo and Serbia to agree on progress in the” dialogue, Stano said.

So far, bilateral meetings have usually been held between the EU envoy for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, and the chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia, but not even trilateral meetings.

The last time a trilateral meeting was held was the July 2nd meeting this year. After the meeting, however, the parties came up with diametrically opposed positions about what had happened at meetings.

The sides had accused each other of “of readiness for dialogue”.

In recent days, Lajcak has held consultations with the parties. But besides stating that the road ahead in the dialogue is being considered, on the part of the EU that brokers this process that has started in 2011 í have not provided details on which topics the parties will deal with at the next meetings.

In the EU, but even in NATO they are increasingly expressing disappointment over the current flow of dialogue, saying the process is not producing expected results. So has the Secretary General. NATO, Mark Rutte, expressing concern about this.

The European emissary for dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, has mandated the post by the end of January 2025. Meanwhile, in the EU, they expect to see what approach to dialogue new senior foreign policy representative Kaya Kallas will have after she receives the mandate. Its mandate will begin when the entire new European Commission team is ready after it is confirmed by the European Parliament.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has declared he expects new dynamics from the European Commission in terms of dialogue. / REL