The envoy of the European Union for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajçak, estimates that the elections in the four municipalities of the north of Kosovo should be held in the following months.

He spoke about Edi Rama’s proposal for an international conference, from which “Kurti and Vucic would not leave without reaching an agreement”. Lajçak said that Rama went to the Head of European Diplomacy Josep Borell with this proposal.

  It is the initiative of Edi Rama. I must say that he plays an active and constructive role in the whole crisis because he is a good connoisseur of the situation on the ground. Of course, as Prime Minister of Albania, his voice is authoritative enough to be heard. I am in regular contact with him and I know how much time and authority he has invested in finding a solution. This is the proposal he came up with. We are in daily contact with the USA and the main European capitals. But of course, the best platform for solving issues is dialogue and we must return to dialogue,”Lajçak said.

Lajçak emphasized that this is one of the points that the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandër Vucic, agreed on from the last meeting in Brussels, with the High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell.

“Of course, new elections must be held in the following months. And this was one of the points on which Vucic and Kurti agreed. It is clear that mayors do not have the legitimacy they should have. Mayors of municipalities can only be legitimately elected by Kosovo Serbs. The question we are dealing with is when and how we will get there. And of course, that the Serbs have the motivation to feel safe and that we have free elections”, Lajçak said.

The EU envoy, for last Thursday’s meeting, emphasized that it was only for the management of the crisis that has been created in the north of Kosovo.

He added that Kurti and Vucic have understood how serious the situation is, and this, according to him, is the positive thing from this meeting.

“That meeting last Thursday in Brussels was a crisis management meeting. So, it was not a meeting dedicated to normalization, dialogue, unfortunately. The positive thing is that both Vucic and Kurti understood how serious the situation is. No one hides this and pretends that we do not have a serious crisis in the north. And secondly, they agreed that one of the main elements of exiting the crisis is new elections. What they disagreed was on the issue of de-escalation. How will these mayors work and from where,” he added.

/k.s/