March Date Likely For Serbia-Kosovo Talks

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By Bojana Barlovac

The date of the first meeting in Brussels of Kosovo and Serbian delegations will be determined this week, a source close to the EU High Representative told Balkan Insight.

“It is expected that the talks will begin in the next couple of weeks,” the source said.

Serbia
Serbia

The source did not specify which topics would be on the agenda or outline the role of the EU in the talks. The two sides themselves needed to agree on the topics, the source explained.

Meanwhile, both governments say that they are on stand-by, ahead of the talks in Belgium.

In January, Belgrade appointed Borislav Stefanovic, political director of Serbia’s foreign ministry, as head of its negotiating team. Pristina has selected deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri as chief negotiator.

Serbia’s Prime Minister, Mirko Cvetkovic, on Thursday said that Serbia was open for discussions on all subjects, including the final status of Kosovo.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, said that Kosovo was ready only for talks on technical issues with Serbia, and did not intend to reopen discussion about Kosovo’s status.

The EU has been for pushing the two sides to talk since September, after the UN General Assembly adopted its latest resolution on Kosovo.

Talks were put on hold as political turmoil worsened in Kosovo following the resignation of President Fatmir Sejdiu. The two sides have been waiting for a new government to be formed in Kosovo following December 12 elections.

Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

One thought on “March Date Likely For Serbia-Kosovo Talks

  • February 28, 2011 at 7:25 pm
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    I do not understand this. Serbian ministers willing to talk with people accused by knowledgeable independent reputable people occupying prestigious international Euro positions of being hierarchical criminals who have amongst other things trading in human organs belonging to Serbs?

    I hope Libyans, Egyptians, Tunisians etc will get a better type of representative

    Reply

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