Lajcak May Become EU Special Envoy for the Western Balkans

Miroslav Lajcak (Photo: Dimitrije Goll)

Miroslav Lajcak, the incumbent foreign minister of Slovakia and a career diplomat, it is believed, might become the first EU special envoy for the Western Balkans, Euractiv.com reported on Jan. 10.

This new position would be established by the European Commission in collaboration with the European External Action Service (EEAS). Lajcak served as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and worked for the EEAS for a short while.

So far, the EU has not had a special envoy for the region aspiring to join the Union, while the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina have been mediated by the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

Belgrade and Pristina have been negotiating an all-encompassing agreement with Brussels acting as the mediator, but there has not been any talks between the two for over a year.

The dialogue was interrupted at the end of 2018, when Pristina imposed taxes of 100 percent on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The talks were further hindered by various elections, first in the EU in May 2019, and then in Kosovo in October last year, while a vote in Serbia is due shortly, probably in April 2020.