Krstic: Direct involvement of the Foreign Affairs Commissioner would signal the EU's Commitment to the Dialogue

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, Milan Krstic, told Kosovo Online that Brussels intends to continue mediating the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina regardless of personnel changes within the European Commission. However, he emphasized that the direct involvement of the commissioner responsible for foreign affairs in mediation between Belgrade and Pristina would send a message that this process is highly important to the European Union.

“There’s also the possibility of continuing the practice of appointing a mediator who will handle the dialogue on the ground, but that doesn’t change the political essence much,” Krstic noted.

Kaja Kallas, the Estonian candidate for EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is undergoing a hearing before the European Parliament today, while Marta Kos, the candidate for Commissioner for Enlargement, completed this part of the approval process last week.

Krstic explained that the Commissioner for Enlargement certainly influences the EU’s policy toward candidate countries for EU membership, and, in this context, plays a role in shaping Brussels' policy toward the region and, by extension, in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

“But the European Union has a separate mediation team that directly handles the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, so these are distinct processes. However, they shouldn’t be viewed as strictly separate with rigid barriers, as everything spills over from one to the other. The EU’s general policy toward the region and its enlargement policy affect progress in the dialogue, and, likewise, progress in the dialogue is one of the conditions for advancing on the path to EU membership,” Krstic concluded.