EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced plans to visit Kosovo and Serbia sometime next month.
Speaking after the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, Kallas told a press conference that the visit would take place “later in May.”
“Regarding Serbia and Kosovo, it is clear that the normalization of their relations is of the utmost importance. For this reason, the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina must continue,” Kallas said.
Kosovo applied for EU membership in December 2022, but its application has not yet been reviewed by Brussels. Kosovo remains the only country in the region without candidate status.
Political dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia has been stalled since September 2023 due to tensions in northern Kosovo, with only chief negotiator-level talks taking place.
Kallas recently expressed the EU’s interest in seeing progress towards normalization, whether through dialogue or other means.
“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.”
During the April 14 conference, Kallas also discussed the EU enlargement process and the potential integration of Western Balkan states.
Kosovo lags behind other Western Balkan nations – Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro – in its EU path, having applied for membership in 2022.
“If we look at the map, the Western Balkans are in Europe geographically, they should also be in the European Union, and for this reason, the enlargement process is very important and we must move forward with it,” Kallas said.
She cited Albania and Montenegro as making good progress and expressed hope that they could serve as “success stories.”
