The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on Tuesday resumed EU-brokered negotiations aimed at resolving a long-lasting dispute that remains a source of tensions in the volatile Balkans.
But the meeting in Brussels between Serbia’’s President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’’s new Prime Minister Albin Kurti appeared to produce little progress in the negotiations that first started in 2011 and have been stalled since last year. “It was not an easy meeting, but it was important that it happened,” said the EU’’s special envoy for the talks, Miroslav Lajcak.
“What is important for the European Union is that both leaders confirmed that there is no other way forward but to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.”
Both countries have been told that they cannot hope to move forward in their efforts to join the EU before resolving the decades-old rift that exploded in a conflict in 1998-99, leaving more than 10,000 people dead and triggering a NATO intervention.
Kosovo, formerly a province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 but Belgrade has refused to accept that.