The Council of the European Union on Friday appointed former Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak as its envoy for the Kosovo dialogue and Western Balkans.

 A statement said that Lajcak’s job as EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues will be to “achieve a comprehensive normalisation of the relations between Serbia and Kosovo, improve good neighbourly relations and reconciliation between partners in the Western Balkans, helping them overcome the legacy of the past, and contribute to the consistency and effectiveness of EU action in the Western Balkans”.

Lajcak took over as EU envoy on Friday with a 12 month term of office. He was nominated for the position by EU High Representative Josep Borell.

The press release recalled that Lajcak served as Slovakia’s Foreign Minister, President of the UN General Assembly, EU Special Representative and the international community High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, the EU High Representative’s personal envoy for Montenegro’s independence referendum and before that as his country’s ambassador in Belgrade.