Kosovo expects to resolve outstanding issues with Serbia this year by reaching an “historic” agreement that would pave the way for the Balkan country to get a seat at the United Nations, President Hashim Thaci said on Tuesday.

Kosovo seceded a decade ago from Serbia, but its independence has not been recognized by Belgrade, which together with its traditional allies Moscow and Beijing has blocked Pristina’s bid for a U.N. seat.

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Seeking to breathe fresh life into the EU with Britain set to leave, the European Commission laid out a strategy to bring Western Balkan nations into the fold if they achieve required reforms, marking a change after years of fading interest.

“The door is open ... There is a clear path for the Western Balkans to finally join the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia as she presented the plan at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

During his lifetime Slobodan Milosevic divided the peoples of the Balkans. Now, 12 years after he died during his trial for war crimes, the onetime Serbian strongman is set to divide them again - this time as a character in a play.

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The U.S. ambassador to Kosovo warned the country’s leaders on Wednesday they would bear harsh consequences if parliament votes to scrap a war crimes court linked to its violent independence struggle.

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PRISTINA (Reuters) - A Kosovan Serb leader, Oliver Ivanovic, who was awaiting trial over the killings of ethnic Albanians during the 1998-99 war, was shot dead outside his party office in the northern town of Mitrovica on Tuesday, a state prosecutor said.

In a protest against the killing, Serbia said it would quit the ongoing round of a European Union-sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on the normalization of relations that was due to take place in Brussels.

Kosovo has signed a contract with power generator ContourGlobal to build a 500-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant, the first major project since the poor Balkan country declared independence in 2008.

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Bulgaria said on Wednesday it would push for more infrastructure, energy and other projects to help bring Western Balkan nations closer to the European Union when it takes up the rotating six-month presidency of the bloc in January.

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The European Union is increasingly willing to consider Western Balkan states joining the bloc, which could help ensure peace in the region while enriching the EU itself, the bloc’s integration commissioner said.

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The largest of the states to emerge from the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Orthodox Christian and Slavic Serbia has natural affinity with Moscow, but it is keen to join the European Union.

This month, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Hoyt Brian Yee told Belgrade it “cannot sit on two chairs at the same time”. His remarks sparked sharp criticism in the Serbian capital.