Lajcak: I will invite chief negotiators to Brussels soon

BRUSSELS - The EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak has announced he would invite the chief negotiators in the dialogue to Brussels soon for discussions about the next steps and said the focus should now be on advancing an agreement on the path to normalisation without preconditions or delays.

Recapping the last week in a Facebook post, Lajcak wrote that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Pristina's PM Albin Kurti had shown "readiness to implement the Agreement" but had been unable to "agree on the modalities."

"They had comments and questions on the European proposal for a statute establishing the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo, which we presented to them during our joint mission last Saturday. I hope that we will be able to clarify open questions and concerns in the coming weeks.

Our statute proposes a modern European way to address the sensitive issue of minority protection in line with best European practices and standards and it does not cross the redlines of the Parties as defined beforehand.

But this is not the only element that needs implementation. Serbia also has many pending obligations from the Agreement and we need to see the implementation progressing in parallel, so that both Kosovo and Serbia get what they agreed to. The focus should now be on advancing the implementation of the Agreement without preconditions or delays. As the three European leaders clearly stated, formalities should not stand in the way of this important process. With this in mind, I will invite the Chief negotiators soon to Brussels to discuss next steps," he added.