Surlic: Criticisms of Lajcak are preparation for parliamentary elections; Pristina has already suspended the dialogue

Kosovo officials are increasingly emphasizing lately that they do not believe in the dialogue mediated by Miroslav Lajcak, accusing him of favoring the Serbian side, and this kind of rhetoric, Stefan Surlic, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, sees as preparation for the political landscape for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Kosovo. He says that the Pristina side has in a way already suspended the dialogue because it does not accept any agreement or compromise and constantly works on discriminatory and escalatory measures on the ground.

"They repeat their well-known stance because they have denounced Miroslav Lajcak from the beginning, first because he comes from a country that has not recognized independent Kosovo, and secondly, they claimed that he is on the side of Belgrade and that he constantly demands that Pristina fulfill Belgrade's conditions. His mandate is nearing its end, European elections are expected, and these voices are now becoming more frequent. It is clear that this is preparation for the parliamentary elections in Kosovo, where they would campaign on how they have won over the north of Kosovo and that the dialogue has not yielded any results," Surlic says for Kosovo Online.

Considering that Kosovo officials favor the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States over the EU mediator in the dialogue, Surlic says that the dialogue has been "parallel" from the very beginning.

"There is mediator Lajcak formally, but there are also German, British, and American channels... Sometimes they are in agreement, and sometimes they have a completely different position on how to proceed. However, there is no doubt that with the expiration of Lajcak's mandate, the dialogue will be conducted at a bilateral level and that Albin Kurti will seek key allies in European countries as before," Surlic believes.

He adds that the parallelism among Western countries is evident in the example of the stance on Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe, where on one hand, the US, represented by Gabriel Escobar, the envoy for the Western Balkans, states that entry into the Council of Europe is premature until Kosovo meets other conditions, primarily regarding the Community of Serb Municipalities and expropriation, while on the other hand, Germany and the United Kingdom are the main advocates for Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe. As he says, it is evident that an active diplomatic campaign is underway to secure two-thirds of the votes of Council of Europe members to support Kosovo's membership in that organization.