The EU Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajçak, spoke about the situation created in the north of Kosovo, stressing that tensions remain high.

According to him, the level of mistrust is higher than ever before, as he added that now it is important not to allow the situation to turn into another crisis.

“What is really important now is not to allow the situation to turn into another crisis, and it is important that the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia begin to create a favorable atmosphere for productive discussions on the normalization of relations.” Lajcak told Politico.

Lajcak said that the March deadline is intended to convey the seriousness of reaching an agreement, and that according to him, the international community is feeling an increased urgency to resolve the issue between Kosovo and Serbia.

Furthermore, he said that Prime Minister Albin Kurti and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, are ready to meet, but the problem is the result.

“The last two meetings were okay in terms of atmosphere, but the visions of the two leaders did not match. There are always great expectations from these meetings”, said Lajçak.

He said that the repeated cycle of tensions followed by temporary solutions is forcing negotiators to commit to “putting out the fire, as we cannot focus on normalization when there is a crisis”.

“So while the last crisis is now over as we speak, I hope that a week from now we won’t be facing another crisis – or we can forget about normalization. Right now, we have a very favorable structure: we have the attention of senior leadership in the US and the EU, and we have exemplary EU-US cooperation, so this is a real window of opportunity, sometime until December 2023 or early 2024,” he said.

Lajcak also mentioned the European Parliament elections and the US presidential elections that will be held in 2024, where he said that the deadlines for agreements will be forgotten if the solution is not reached by then.

“If things are not done by then, we will have to start all over again. If we return to the crisis and clashes, then we can forget the deadlines”, said Lajçak.

/a.p/