European Union Enlargement Commissioner, Marta Kos, briefly mentioned Kosovo during her address to members of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels on Tuesday.

She highlighted that EU enlargement today is significantly different from how it was four or five years ago, noting that “we are in a new positive moment for the EU.”

“For the first time in the last ten years, we have the opportunity to admit one, two, or even three new countries to the EU during our mandate. However, I have told our partners in recent weeks that there will be no compromises when it comes to the fundamental criteria and values of the EU,” Kos emphasized.

Regarding Kosovo, she spoke briefly at the end when asked by a Member of the European Parliament about her expectations for the upcoming elections in Kosovo.

“Kosovo… I did not mention Kosovo. There will be elections there. I don’t expect any movement before the elections, but soon after the elections, we must make progress. We cannot discuss the Western Balkans region without addressing the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, or separately, what Kosovo and Serbia are each doing,” said Kos.

Following the elections scheduled for February 9 in Kosovo, the new EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, is expected to embark on her first tour of the Western Balkans region.

Meanwhile, the EU Special Representative for the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue, Miroslav Lajčak, has warned that this week’s focus in Brussels will be on the first meeting of the Joint Commission for missing persons from the last war in Kosovo.

The Joint Commission is part of the Joint Declaration on missing persons, which Kosovo and Serbia reached in 2023 as part of the dialogue for normalizing relations.

At the last meeting in Brussels on December 17, 2024, Kosovo’s chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, and Serbia’s chief negotiator, Petar Petković, agreed on the full implementation of the Declaration on missing persons.

/k.s/