Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić will travel to Brussels on Thursday 26 or Friday 27 October, alongside the European Council, to try to find a solution to end the high tensions between Kosovo and his country, while the threat of European sanctions hangs over Belgrade.
The announcement of this trip to Brussels follows a meeting on Saturday 21 October between Mr Vučić and the US envoy for the Western Balkans, the French and German foreign and security policy advisers, and the diplomatic adviser to the President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni.
Mr Vučić told Serbian media that the meeting had been “difficult”, just as he believes discussions with Kosovo are at present.
Before meeting Mr Vučić, the American, French, German and Italian envoys had made the diversions to Pristina in an attempt to bring the two parties back to the negotiating table. On this occasion, the European Union’s Special Representative for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajčák, launched a new appeal for de-escalation.
“We expect both parties to begin fulfilling their obligations under the old and new agreements. Dialogue will be on the agenda of Monday’s meeting of European foreign ministers, but will also be discussed by European leaders later in the week”, he added at the weekend.
Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina - already extremely high - reached a new level at the end of September, when a Kosovar policeman was killed by a group of Serbian gunmen (see EUROPE 13257/21).
Some Member States - and a very large section of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13275/20) - want sanctions to be imposed on Serbia if the investigation shows that the Serbian government is directly involved in this affair. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)