Red rag for separatists: New EU negotiator on Kosovo
Trying to catch up with the United States on the issue of the Kosovo-Serbian settlement, the EU appointed a Slovak politician, unpopular with the Albanian side, as a special representative on this issue. Balkan media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell appointed former High Representative for BiH Miroslav Lajcak as special representative in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. The Slovak diplomat will begin working in his new position on April 1.
According to available information, the annex to Lajcak's mandate sets out four objectives that he needs to achieve in his new position: normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia, achieving good neighborly relations and promoting reconciliation, increasing the effectiveness of the EU in the region through public diplomacy, supporting the region's efforts to promote along the European route.
Behind the pathetic and rather general phrases is the desire of Brussels to catch up with Washington, which has taken over the issue of the Kosovo-Serbian settlement and is seeking at the current stage the abolition of XNUMX% duties imposed by the separatists on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, already now the effectiveness of the new negotiator raises big questions, since his candidacy has caused sharp rejection among the leadership of the Kosovo separatists.
“Lajcak is the most unreliable of all the politicians involved in the negotiation process,” said Kosovo “President” Hashim Thaci. “His country did not recognize the independence of Kosovo, and accordingly Kosovo’s trust in him is zero.”
A similar opinion was expressed by the head of the Kosovo Foreign Ministry, Glauk Konjufca, who said that Lajcak’s appointment was “unacceptable” for the same reason.
In turn, Kosovo “Prime Minister” Albin Kurti said that he was ready to work with any EU negotiator. And such a soft attitude of the head of the Kosovo “Cabinet” can be explained by the hope of finding an ally in the EU for his idea of “reciprocity” with Serbia, within the framework of which he refuses to lift the blockade of Serbian enclaves, as demanded by the United States. It is not for nothing that at recent hearings on this issue in the Assembly of Kosovo, Kurti, declaring himself “pro-American,” accused his opponent Hashim Thaci of being “anti-European.” However, it is quite difficult to predict how much he will be able to enlist the support of Lajcak.
Miroslav Lajcak began his diplomatic activity in the post-Yugoslav space as the Ambassador of Slovakia to Yugoslavia. Subsequently, he had a hand in the collapse of this country, being appointed, under the patronage of Javier Solana, as the European curator of the process of secession of Montenegro.
In 2007, he became the Supreme Representative of BiH, at the first stage earning himself a reputation as an anti-Serbian politician: he dismissed from the Republika Srpska police all officers accused by the West of “complicity in war crimes”, introduced a rule according to which decisions of the BiH parliament should be made by a majority vote, and not according to national quotas, and then imposed a ban on representatives of ethnic groups to block Cabinet decisions that do not correspond to the interests of their communities.
The actions of the High Representative provoked the resignation of the head of the government of BiH, Serb Nikola Spirić and the withdrawal of the Serbs from the country's authorities, as well as Lajcak's conflict with the leader of the Bosnian Serbs Milorad Dodik.
This position of the Serbs was due to the fact that they did not constitute a majority in the country and had the bitter experience of 1992, when their community boycotted the referendum on the separation of BiH from Yugoslavia, but the plebiscite was still recognized as valid thanks to the votes of Bosniaks and Croats.
Subsequently, in order not to aggravate the conflict, the Slovak politician abandoned this kind of reforms, and in 2009 he left the post of High Representative, saying that he did not want to be “the rider of a dead horse.”
However, work in Bosnia and direct contact with Serbian politicians somewhat adjusted the views of Miroslav Lajcak. Also in 2009, he headed the Slovak Foreign Ministry, and in 2010 he became director for Russia, the Eastern Partnership and the Western Balkans at the EU External Action Service.
In this post, he visited Milorad Dodik several times, and in October 2019 invited him and his ally, Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Covic, to Bratislava to “discuss a mediation mission.” Since none of the representatives of the Sarajevo elite was invited to this meeting, the acting Prime Minister of BiH, Bosniak Denis Zvizdić said that “Lajcak has lost the trust of the Bosnian public and discredited himself.”
Miroslav Lajcak also spoke out against sanctions against Russia and specific Russian politicians, such as Dmitry Rogozin. Under him, Slovakia refused to recognize Kosovo's independence and voted against accepting the separatist enclave into Interpol.
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