The Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue has a new EU Special Representative. Danish diplomat Peter Sørensen has been appointed by the EU Council to succeed Slovak Miroslav Lajčák, starting on 1 February. His initial mandate will last for 13 months, until 28 February 2026.
Sørensen is a diplomat with “extensive experience, including from the Western Balkans’ region,” the EU Council stated. As EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, he will face the complex task of facilitating the comprehensive normalisation of the relations between Serbia and Kosovo. His responsibilities will include overseeing the implementation of the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation and its Implementation Annex, which were adopted in February and March 2023 in Brussels and Ohrid (North Macedonia).
EU Special Representatives promote the EU’s policies and interests in specific regions and countries—as well as on issues—”of particular concern or interest” to the EU. They play an “active” role in supporting reforms, stability, and the rule of law.
Currently, 11 EU Special Representatives are advancing the EU foreign and security policy. Johan Borgstam for the African Great Lakes; Luigi Soreca in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Terhi Hakala for Central Asia; Annette Weber for the Horn of Africa; Olof Skoog for Human Rights; Aivo Orav for Kosovo; Sven Koopmans for the Middle East Peace Process; Emanuela Claudia Del Re for the Sahel; Magdalena Grono for the Southern Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia; Peter Sørensen for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other regional issues in the Western Balkans (starting from 1 February), and Luigi Di Maio for the Gulf Region.
Who is Peter Sørensen?
From 1995 to 1996, Sørensen served as a member of the European Community Monitor Mission in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1996 to 1997, he worked as a Legal Adviser for the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo, and from 1997 to 1999, he was Head of Political Affairs for the OSCE Mission in Zagreb.
In 2000, Sørensen acted as a Legal Adviser to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans, before being appointed Senior Adviser to the UN Special Representative of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), a position he held until 2006.
For the next five years, he served as the Personal Representative of the EU High Representative in Serbia. In 2011, he was appointed Head of the EU Delegation in North Macedonia, followed by his role as EU Special Representative and Head of Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2011 to 2014.
In 2014, Sørensen became Head of the EU Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva. Most recently, he served as Principal Adviser and Special Envoy on Digital Diplomacy, seconded by the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Almost 15 years of EU mediation
The formal talks between Belgrade and Pristina, which began on 8 March 2011, were the first in a series of negotiation rounds mediated by the European Union. The three main issues on the table were cooperation in the Balkan region, freedom of movement between Serbia and Kosovo, and the alignment of national laws. Seven months of negotiations produced some results on paper, including the end of the trade embargo, Belgrade’s recognition of Pristina’s customs stamps, and the sharing of land registry records and documents related to births, deaths, and marriages in Kosovo.
Another year and a half of technical agreements led to the first high-level Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in early 2013, chaired by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton. The first major success was the signing of the First Agreement of Principles Governing the Normalisation of Relations—informally known as the Brussels Agreement—on 19 April 2013. This allowed work to begin on signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Kosovo and starting Serbia’s EU accession negotiations.
However, two key issues remained unresolved: Belgrade’s recognition of Kosovo’s sovereignty and the establishment of the Association/community of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo. From 2014 onwards, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini was tasked with mediating in an increasingly tense environment. The Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue was frozen in November 2018, when the Kosovan government imposed a 100% tariff on goods coming from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The deadlock in relations between the two countries lasted until 12 July 2020, when EU High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajčák managed to bring the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo back to the negotiating table (remotely). Two other high-level meetings (in person) took place between 16 July and 7 September. While these three meetings did not lead to a decisive breakthrough, a final agreement between Belgrade and Pristina was considered in Brussels to be “a matter of months, not years.”
Tension escalated in northern Kosovo with the so-called ‘car plate dispute’ in mid-September 2021. Pristina required all Serbian vehicles entering Kosovo to change their number plates, affecting the Serb minority in northern Kosovo. The issue was temporarily resolved through EU mediation, but the lack of a permanent solution led to further tensions. By the end of July 2022, roadblocks and barricades appeared at the border, and two unsuccessful high-level meetings in Brussels failed to break the deadlock.
The situation worsened when the Serb List (the dominant Serb party in Kosovo, aligned with Belgrade’s interests) took control of popular protests in northern Kosovo. In November 2022, mass resignations occurred in the region’s public institutions, including the mayors of Kosovska Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvečan, and Leposavić. Early elections were scheduled for 18 December but were postponed to 23 April 2023 due to new barricades erected at the end of the year at the border crossings in northern Kosovo.
Meanwhile, the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue saw an expected positive twist. On 27 February 2023, the 11-point Brussels Agreement defined the specific commitments that Serbia and Kosovo must respect. Although the text was not signed, it became binding through the agreement on the implementation annex reached during the meeting in Ohrid (North Macedonia) on 18 March. The two agreements became an integral part of the paths towards EU membership for both countries.
The next crisis emerged in May 2023, when protests in northern Kosovo against the newly elected mayors in Zubin Potok, Zvečan, Leposavić, and Kosovska Mitrovica turned into a sort of guerrilla conflict involving NATO-led KFOR soldiers. Furthermore, three Kosovan police officers were arrested by Serbian security forces in June. An emergency meeting with Kosovan Prime Minister Kurti and Serbian President Vučić was convened in Brussels. Due to Pristina’s failure to adopt a “constructive attitude” towards de-escalation, “temporary and reversible” EU measures were imposed on Kosovo.
The situation further deteriorated with a terrorist attack near the Serbian Orthodox Banjska Monastery on 24 September 2023. A day of clashes between Kosovan police forces and a group of around 30 armed men left one officer and three attackers dead. One of the attackers was Milan Radoičić, deputy leader of the Serb List party, who later confirmed his involvement. Links to Belgrade emerged, while the U.S. denounced a “large military build-up” by Serbia near the administrative border.
After the resolution of the ‘car plate dispute’, thanks to mutual recognition for vehicles entering the border between December 2023 and January 2024, Kosovo’s enforcement of the euro as the sole legal tender since 1 February 2024 disrupted public services in northern Kosovo resisting currency regulations introduced in 2002. Belgrade continues to pay salaries, pensions, and benefits in dinars to many ethnic Serbs in the region, while Pristina pushes for complete sovereignty over northern Kosovo./newunionpost.eu/
