European Union's Special Representative for Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and the Western Balkans Miroslav Lajcak spoke to N1's Mirna Zdralovic in Ljubljana, where he is attending the 1st International Meeting of Friends of Western Balkans: The Western Balkans in the European Union on April 19-20. Lajcak spoke about various topics from the EU integration of the Western Balkans, Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, political developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Russian influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as his next position and his successor at the post of the Special Envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

Lajcak said he has been dealing with the Western Balkans for the past 25 years and that this was the first time he sees the EU more ready for the Balkans than the Balkans is ready for the EU.

“This is the momentum, momentum never lasts long, and if you don't want to miss the momentum you need to transform it into a new quality,” he said speaking about the EU integration of the Western Balkan countries.

Asked about the main problems in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue during his 4-year mandate, he said it was the lack of the quest and the push for normalisation both in Serbia and Kosovo.

He also noted that whenever Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti agree on certain steps towards the normalisation, it is met with criticism in their societies.

“So, obviously the most important element for this process to be completed is to help the societies to understand that without normalisation of their relations there is no European future for them,” said Lajcak.

Watch the full interview in the video.