Lajčak is leaving

As already announced, he will be replaced in that position by the Danish diplomat Peter Sorensen.

Sorensen will officially take office on February 1, 2025, as the EU Council appointed him on January 27 as the EU's special envoy for the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, with an initial mandate of 13 months.

As announced by the EU Council at the time, the tasks of the new EU special envoy will be to mediate in the dialogue, which will contribute to the comprehensive normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, and in particular to the implementation of the Agreement on the Road to Normalization of Relations and its Implementation Annex, which were adopted in February and March 2023.

The agreement on the path to the normalization of relations and its implementation annex were reached during the nearly five-year mandate of Lajčak, otherwise a Slovak politician and diplomat.

Ahead of his departure as EU special envoy, Lajčak said that the EU is preparing proposals for both sides in a process that will be led by the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, with the help of Sorensen, and that Brussels intends to restart talks at the leadership level after the AP elections on Kosovo and Metohija.

Lajčak's successor in this position, Peter Sorensen, has many years of experience in the Western Balkans region.

From 2006 to 2010, Sorensen was the personal representative in Belgrade of the then high representative of the EU, and he also served in Pristina, Skopje and Sarajevo.

In Pristina, from 2001 to 2002, he was a senior adviser to the special representative of the UN Secretary General in Pristina, and from 2002 to 2006, he served as the vice president of Pillar IV (Reconstruction and Economic Development) of UNMIK.

He also worked as a legal advisor to the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Balkans and held the positions of Head of the EU Delegation in Skopje and EU Special Envoy and Head of the EU Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.