Lajcak: Belgrade did not participate in joint meeting due to developments in Kosovo-Metohija

BRUSSELS - The EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said on Wednesday he had held separate meetings with Belgrade and Pristina officials in Brussels instead of the first meeting of a joint commission on missing persons.

"Today, we intended to hold the first meeting of the Joint Commission on Missing Persons on the level of deputies. I met separately with both Parties. Kosovo presented its priorities. Serbia informed about not participating in a joint meeting due to the developments in Kosovo," Lajcak wrote in a post on X after the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic walked out of discussions following a closure of dozens of Serbian institutions and Post of Serbia offices south of the Ibar River in Kosovo-Metohija in the morning.

Petkovic, who is also Belgrade's chief negotiator in the EU-facilitated dialogue with Pristina, said the closure of the institutions showed that Pristina's PM Albin Kurti wanted no dialogue, but violence and a direct crackdown on Serbs in the autonomous province.