“Oligations for Kosovo and Serbia from dialogue change with new facilitators”

The European Union Council has also formally extended the mandate of the EU's special envoy for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, until January 2025. This decision, which member states had earlier agreed to at the request of EU high representative for foreign policy and security Josep Borrell, is now formal.

The decision was made several months after EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Josep Borrell had named Lajcak as EU ambassador to Switzerland, where he had to start work on September 1st, shortly after he had expired the mandate in the role of facilitator dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

With Lajcak's five months remaining in the role of facilitator of dialogue, the EU wants to ensure that there is no vacuum in the matter until his successor is expected to be appointed.

The appointment of Lajcak's successor is now directly linked to the procedure for appointing new leaders in EU institutions for the upcoming five-year term.

Within the package, for which ten days ago the leaders of EU member states were reconciled at the European Council meeting, is also the nomination of Estonia Prime Minister Kaya Kallas to the post of EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy.

But to start the mandate, it must expect, first, the European Parliament to confirm the election of Ursula von der Leyen as chairman of the European Commission for another term of five years. It will then propose by a member of its Commission from each member state, and each of them must pass the hearing process at the European Parliament Commissions and receive confirmation.

After Kallas will have a double role, that of the high representative for foreign policy and security, but also of the European Commission's vice president, she too must pass through the confirmation procedure in the European Parliament.

In the best case, if Ursula von der Leyen on July 18th at the plenary session of the European Parliament secures most of the votes of MPs, and then in autumn all commissionors are confirmed, the nearest deadline when Kaya Kallas will take over from Josep Borrell is the leadership of this year's joint EU diplomacy.

At best, Kallas will be able to start working as Borrell's successor on November 1st. It will then take at least weeks to decide who it wants to appoint as the special envoy for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. Therefore, the EU has seen it take another five months to extend Lajcak's mandate in hopes that by then his successor,“, a European diplomat, will be appointed.

Because of the circumstances in the dialogue, which is not producing results in the form of reconciliation of the parties, diplomats in Brussels do not expect there will be any twist in the process in the coming months. Lajcak and Borrell had an effort in late June to organise a high-level meeting under dialogue between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq. But those efforts failed.

Even though Kurti and Vuciq went to Brussels responding to the EU invitation, there was no joint meeting between them.

The last high-level meeting under the dialogue was held on September 14, 2023.

The lack of meetings at this level of diplomats see the process as evidence that it is not working with the desired dynamic.

Kaya Kallas, successor to Josep Borrell, when she takes this post will also be facilitating the dialogue at the top level. So, she is expected to invite leaders from Kosovo and Serbia to the meeting when meetings are at the high level and to lead those meetings.

Meanwhile, meetings at the level of auditors will ease the special envoy for dialogue on behalf of the EU. In this form, there are no changes in the EU. But how to approach dialogue in the future will decide Borrell's successor, which is expected to be Kallas unless there is any obstacle to her appointment. And it wouldn't make sense for Borrell at the end of his mandate to appoint someone who will then work with his successor. That is why Lajcak's mandate to leave the high representative, Kallas, behind to appoint the envoy for dialogue.

“Qi may change. But we do not expect major changes. As dialogue is not going according to expectations that existed in the EU, but those that will not change are the obligations of Kosovo and Serbia that have so far emerged from the dialogue process”, an EU diplomat has said.

Diplomats in the EU say that, anyone to facilitate dialogue on behalf of the European Union, should follow the mandate and tasks that member states appoint. And member states are unanimous that Kosovo and Serbia must implement all obligations that have emerged from agreements reached so far in the dialogue process.

This, according to these sources, includes implementation of the Agreement on the road to normalisation of reports between Kosovo and Serbia, as well as the annex for implementing this agreement, which the parties were hired in the spring of 2023 in Ohrid.

Kaya Kallas, when taking office, will be the 4th largest EU representative to facilitate dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. The dialogue had started in Catherine Ashton's mandate, which was also the first EU high representative since this post was created with the Lisbon Treaty. Then the high-level relief role was to Federica Moghrini and then Josep Borrell. The normalisation of reports between Kosovo and Serbia continues to be viewed as one of the main EU priorities in the field of foreign policy and security, as well as one of the main challenges for ensuring long-term stability in the Western Balkans region. /rel