EU foreign policy chief Kallas cancels Tivat summit
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has cancelled her attendance at the EU and Western Balkans summit in Tivat on the eve of the event, with the EEAS saying she has fallen ill.
- EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has cancelled her attendance at the EU and Western Balkans summit in Tivat.
- The European External Action Service says she fell ill and was unable to travel.
- The cancellation came a day before the event, hosted by Montenegro's president.
- The summit is chaired by European Council President Antonio Costa, with EU enlargement the main topic.
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, has cancelled her trip to the EU and Western Balkans summit held in Tivat on June 5. The decision landed on the eve of the gathering, a day before she was due to sit down with the region’s leaders.
The European External Action Service (EEAS) said Kallas had fallen ill and was therefore unable to travel to Montenegro. In the same statement, the service noted that the High Representative is working from home and is expected back in the office within a few days.
Why her absence matters for the summit
Kallas is one of the most visible figures in European foreign policy, and her presence at regional gatherings carries symbolic weight. The Tivat summit brings together EU figures and the leaders of the Western Balkans, with Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic acting as host.
The meeting is chaired by European Council President Antonio Costa, with EU enlargement as the central topic, an issue that remains decisive for the region. The EEAS statement also passed on a message from the High Representative herself.
The High Representative regrets that she missed the summit, is working from home and we expect her to return to the office within a few days.
A last-minute cancellation does not alter the agenda, but it removes one of the EU’s strongest voices at a moment when the region is looking for concrete signals on the pace of integration.
What the cancellation means for the Tivat message
Even though the reason is health-related, the High Representative’s absence inevitably shifts the dynamic of the meeting. Some of the weight her participation would have lent to talks on foreign and security policy now falls to Costa and the other institutional figures present in Tivat.
For the Western Balkan countries, which weigh every message from Brussels, such details are far from trivial. The announced topics remain unchanged, but the bilateral meetings that might have been held with Kallas will not take place this time.
For Serbia and the other participants, the core question stays the same: how concrete will the message on enlargement be, and will the absence of one of the EU’s key interlocutors leave a mark on what the region’s leaders expect to hear?
Will the Tivat summit deliver a clearer enlargement timetable, or stay at the level of broad reassurances?
