The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, told Kosovo and Serbia on Thursday that normalisation of their relations will remain a priority for the bloc before assessing their future integration steps.

Kallas, undertaking her first tour of Belgrade and Prishtina since assuming the top EU diplomatic job in December last year, said the agreement between Kosovo’s PM, Albin Kurti, and Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vucic, reached in Ohrid, North Macedonia, in March 2023, “needs to be followed by both parties”.

Kallas said that for Serbia, normalisation of relations with Kosovo “is not just improving ties; it is fundamental for Serbia’s European future”.

Speaking about Kosovo’s obligations, she said that “normalising your relations is the only path to a safe and prosperous future for the people of this region”.

“Stability depends on dialogue, not on confrontation,” she added.

Serbia’s and Kosovo’s leaders have not officially met since mid-September 2023. The last attempt to bring them both to the table, under the previous EU leadership, in June 2024, failed.

In October 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron, former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni unsuccessfully tried to get them to commit to implementing the agreement on normalisation relations and establish a disputed “Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities” in Kosovo.

“I plan to invite the representatives from Belgrade and Pristina to Brussels as soon as possible to discuss the steps forward,” Kallas told the media in Belgrade.

After meeting Kallas, Serbia’s government press office said that Prime Minister Djuro Macut had “emphasized … the unequivocal European orientation of the Republic of Serbia”.

Kallas said that from her meetings with the leaderships, “it is clear that EU membership remains a strategic goal” but that Brussels needs “to see actions also to prove and support those words”.

“Real progress [in reforms] must be made here in Belgrade and the next steps are very clear. They include media freedom, combating corruption, electoral reforms. So reforms need to be real, not just ticking the box on the paper,” Kallas told the media after her meetings.

Previously, she met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and other officials, as well as opposition representatives, civic society members and youth.

Speaking in Prishtina before meeting Kosovo’s leaders, Kallas encouraged them to break the current political deadlock in parliament and form a new government.

“Kosovo belongs to the European family but there are no shortcuts for EU membership. Progress can only be achieved through sustained reforms,” she said.

Kallas also announced that the EU would “gradually” lift measures imposed on Kosovo in June 2023 at the peak of escalations in several Serb-majority northern municipalities. They included suspension of high-level visits as well as EU financial cooperation.

Kallas did not specify which measures would be lifted first.

“The decision opens the door for greater opportunities for Kosovo’s development and also for closer ties with Europe. But it’s conditional on sustained de-escalation in the north. The closure of Serbia-supported structures in the north undermines efforts towards de-escalation,” Kallas said, referencing Serbian-run organisations in northern Kosovo closed down and outlawed by Kurti’s government in Kosovo.