EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that she will visit Kosovo and Serbia sometime next month. Speaking at a press conference following the Foreign Affairs Council meeting on April 14 in Luxembourg, Kallas said the visit will take place “later in May.”
“With regard to Serbia and Kosovo, it is clear that normalizing their relations is of utmost importance. For this reason, the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina must continue,” Kallas stated.
Kosovo applied for EU membership in December 2022. However, the application has yet to be reviewed by EU authorities in Brussels. Kosovo also remains the only country in the region without official candidate status.
Due to ongoing crises in northern Kosovo, which have escalated tensions between the two countries, no high-level political round of dialogue has taken place in Brussels since September 2023. Only technical-level discussions between chief negotiators have continued.
Recently, Kallas stated that the EU is interested in seeing progress toward normalization of relations, whether through the current Dialogue or another mechanism.
“Maybe it’s dialogue, maybe it’s another tool. I am ready to consider this issue, and I will do so together with the Special Representative [for the Dialogue, Peter Sorensen] in the coming days,” she said.
During the April 14 press conference, Kallas also addressed the enlargement process and the potential integration of Western Balkan countries into the European Union.
Among the Western Balkan countries — Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro — Kosovo remains the furthest behind in its EU accession path, following its application in 2022.
“If we look at the map, the Western Balkans are geographically in Europe, so they should also be in the European Union. That is why the enlargement process is so important and must move forward,” said Kallas.
She added that Albania and Montenegro are making good progress and expressed hope that these two countries could be viewed as “success stories.”
