On Monday, EU spokesperson Peter Stano confirmed that Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will visit Brussels on July 12 to re-start the stalled EU-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

“The summit will be hosted by EU High Representative Josep Borrell in the presence of the special envoy for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak,” Stano stated, adding that “all open issues” concerning the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia will be discussed.

The resumption of the dialogue will be preceded by a meeting in Paris between Hoti and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, and a virtual summit held between Hoti, Macron, Vucic and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 10.

According to a press release issued by the Kosovo Government on Monday, Tuesday’s meeting between Hoti and Macron “shows the care and dedication of President Macron towards Kosovo and its Euroatlantic future.” 

Vucic was due to meet his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci, together with Hoti, on 27 June in Washington DC, as well as the US envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell. However, after the Kosovo Specialist Prosecution Office announced on 24 June that a ten-count indictment charging Thaci with war crimes and crimes against humanity had been filed in April, the US meeting was put on hold until further notice.

Grenell stated prior to the meeting that US-led talks would focus on “economic normalisation,” which would be followed by the EU taking the lead on political issues between Kosovo and Serbia. 

The EU-facilitated dialogue, which began in 2011, was suspended in November 2018 following the imposition of a 100 percent tariff increase on imports entering Kosovo from Serbia.