BRUSSELS – António Costa, the new President of the European Council who took office on 1 December, hosted the leaders of the Western Balkan countries for an informal dinner on Tuesday evening and continued the individual meeting on Wednesday. The dinner was hosted ahead of the annual EU-Western Balkans summit, which is taking place in Brussels on 18 December 2024.
On Tuesday, Costa met separately with the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski, Chairwoman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željka Cvijanović, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti.
On Wednesday, Costa also met with the President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani and President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović.
“The future of the Western Balkans is in the EU. Let’s work to make it happen”, Costa wrote on X on Tuesday evening.
New High Representative of the Union Kaja Kallas and Commissioner on Enlargement Marta Kos, whose mandate started with the start of the work of the new Commission, also participated in the meeting.
Previously, Aleksandar Vučić and Albin Kurti met with Kaja Kallas, who, as the High Representative, is expected to continue the role of her predecessors as the mediator of the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue. The meeting took place in the context of the recent attack on the Ibar Lepenac/Ibër-Lepenci water canal.
I met @avucic and @albinkurti today.
The only way to EU membership is through normalisation of their relations, on the basis of the Ohrid agreement.
I welcomed the readiness to fully cooperate after the recent terrorist attack. Perpetrators must face justice. pic.twitter.com/SRChOiwPb2
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) December 3, 2024
“I met with Aleksandar Vučić and Albin Kurti today. The only way to EU membership is through normalisation of their relations, on the basis of the Ohrid agreement. I welcomed the readiness to fully cooperate after the recent terrorist attack. Perpetrators must face justice”, Kaja Kallas posted on X.
Albin Kurti stated after the meeting that the Government of Kosovo had confiscated not only weapons and ammunition but also 74 military emblems belonging to Russian and Serbian forces, KoSSev reports.
Vučić, meanwhile, reiterated his position that there was no involvement of Belgrade and that Serbia is conducting its own investigation, the results of which will be known in the coming days and weeks.
Marta Kos also posted on X that she had met with Željka Cvijanović, Aleksandar Vučić, Jakov Milatović and Hristijan Mickoski, as well as Cristina Gherasimov, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration of the Government of Moldova.