Lajcak: Steps on several issues agreed but no progress on implementation

LONDON - The EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak says "concrete next steps" on several practical issues were agreed at a July 2 meeting of chief negotiators in the dialogue but that there was no progress on implementation of an agreement on the path to normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

"Just began my visit to London after an eventful week, which started in Brussels and ended in Madrid.

In Brussels, I hosted the Chief Negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia to follow up on the High-level Meeting from the week before. After more than seven hours of intense discussions, we agreed on concrete next steps on several practical issues. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to make progress on the big picture - the implementation of the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation," Lajcak wrote in a Facebook post on Monday evening.

"From Brussels, I travelled to Madrid to participate in the inaugural meeting of the World Economic Forum High-level Group on Strategic Interdependence and the Annual Meeting of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Both events were extremely useful for discussing the course of European politics and exchanging ideas with policy experts and practitioners. In the margins, I also had the chance to reconnect with many of my colleagues and good friends. Once in Madrid, I also used my stay to discuss the developments in the Western Balkans with the Spanish State Secretary for European Affairs," he added.