Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he was convinced that the progress made in Tuesday’s latest Serbia-Kosovo talks in Brussels would enable Serbia to open the first chapters in the EU accession process by the end of the year.
A six-hours meeting between the Serbian and Kosovo leaders, seen as a crucial for the European integration processes of both sides, ended only with a deal on a car insurance, however.
The two sides failed to clinch final agreements on the most important issues – the Association of Serbian Municipalities, telecommunications, energy and the barricade on the bridge in the divided northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica.
A source close to Serbian delegation told BIRN that progress was “amazingly made” on the Association Community of Serbian Municipalities.
“On the three other issues we failed to make much progress but …the highest level meeting is scheduled for Monday,” the source said.
Vucic said any agreements had to take into account Serbian national interests. “The agreement has to essentially protect the interests of Serbian and Serbs [in Kosovo],” Vucic said after the talks with Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and EU Foreign Affairs chief Federica Mogherini.
He hoped that a final agreement on the Association of Municipalities would be reached by June 29.
Vucic said six out of 15 points in the agreement on the Association had already been harmonized – but the delegation from Pristina had tried to use the subject of energy to launch others questions about property, which is unacceptable for Serbia.
The EU High Representative meanwhile said that “good progress was made on all issues” at the meeting.
Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Hashim Thaçi, also said the meeting was “hard but successful for the Kosovar side”.
Kosovo’s Minister of Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, said the signing of the agreement on insurance policies would enable free movement of vehicles between the two countries.
The European Council granted Serbia membership candidate status on March 1, 2012. In June 2013, the EU decided to open accession negotiations, but no chapters have yet been opened so far as the EU awaits progress in the normalization of relations with Pristina.
Kosovo and Serbia launched the joint dialogue aimed at normalizing relations in March 2011.
In April 2013, the two sides signed the so-called Brussels agreement on the normalization of relations. However, just a small portion of deals reached so far have been implemented.
