Lajcak regrets "the most pressing issues" were not addressed in trilateral format

BRUSSELS - After separate meetings with the chief negotiators of Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels, the EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said he regretted that "the most pressing issues" in the dialogue had not been addressed in a trilateral format, and announced that the discussions would be continued in the coming weeks.

"Hosted the two Chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia and their delegations for separate meetings in Brussels today. I regret we did not address the most pressing issues in a trilateral format today. I remain at the disposal of the Parties and we will continue in the next weeks," Lajcak wrote in a post on X after no trilateral meeting took place in Tuesday's round of the EU-facilitated dialogue.

Earlier, the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said Pristina's chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi had rejected a trilateral meeting because Belgrade's delegation had insisted on topics such as a Community of Serb Municipalities, services and implementation of agreements, presenting measures for protection of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs.