Lajcak: I have not met with the new mayors, the elections in the north do not bring a long-term solution

The EU's Special Envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajcak, confirmed at the end of his visit to Kosovo today that he did not meet with the newly elected mayors of four municipalities in the north.

Given that it has been speculated for days that the EU sent a request that the newly elected mayors of four municipalities who were elected in the local elections held on April 23, in which 3.4 percent of the citizens turned out, of which only 13 were Serbs, do not take office, the question arises whether Lajcak confirmed it in this way.

When asked by a journalist at the end of his visit to Kosovo, if it is true that today on behalf of the EU he made a proposal for the Community of Serbian Municipalities and if he met with the new mayors, Lajcak said that neither the first nor the second was true.

When it comes to the newly elected mayors, Lajcak says that the EU's position is "that the elections were legal, but that the result does not represent a long-term political solution."

"Neither one nor the other is correct, as far as the process is concerned, you know the position of the EU, the process is legal, but it does not represent a long-term political solution to the situation, and this must be achieved through a political agreement," said Lajcak.

When it comes to the proposal for the CSM, Lajcak says that it would be naive to expect that there is a common position of both sides from the beginning.

"Now we need to sit down and bring the views of both sides together and the common platform should be previous agreements and the European model. Where there is a will, there is a way," he said.

As he pointed out, it was very important for him to spend time in the north of Kosovo and to talk to people in order to get an authentic impression of what the situation was like, what the problems were and what could be expected.

"As I said before, we either have normalization or confrontation. For me, the answer is clear - we need to focus one hundred percent on normalization and not allow confrontation to occur. That's why the meetings I had were very useful and important," he said. Lajcak  added that he wa leaving Kosovo with new information, new impressions and that he would continue to discuss it tomorrow in Belgrade and on Monday in Brussels.

As part of the day-long visit, he spoke with the political representatives of the Albanians in Pristina and South Mitrovica, and then in North Mitrovica with the representatives of the Serbs.

Earlier today in Northern Mitrovica, Lajcak, answering a journalist's question about what he expected from the new mayors in the north of Kosovo, said that he only expected that a solution would be found that would not lead to an escalation of the situation.

As he explained, this means that he expected political representatives who had authority to talk with the EU about how the matter would be resolved.