Kosovo and Serbia Far From Agreement

Despite repeated video and telephone conferences, Serbia and Kosovo have failed to agree on a compromise solution that will enable Kosovo to take part in regional meetings.

The EU mediator in the dialogue, Robert Cooper, has held several meeting with both sides, but according to a Balkan Insight source from the EU the two remain in deadlock and no new talks have been scheduled.

 “Consultations are ongoing. No particular progress has been made,” the source said.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. But Serbia does not recognise the new country and Belgrade has refused to participate in fora and conferences where Kosovo is represented as an independent country with its own state symbols.

During the negotiations, Pristina has been insisting that Kosovo be represented as "The Republic of Kosovo", a forumula that Belgrade finds unacceptable.

Belgrade insists on Kosovo being represented in regional talks with a reference to the 1999 UN Security Council Resolution on Kosovo, Number 1244, which Pristina rejects.

Reaching a deal that allows Serbia and Kosovo both to attend regional conferences was one of the conditions set by Europe for Serbia to obtain EU candidacy.

Last December, the European Council postponed a decision on Serbia's candidacy bid, conditioning candidate status on further progress in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

The Council is to return to the issue of Serbia's candidate status on February 28. “A day before Foreign Affairs Council meets it will look at the progress in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina,” Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said.

However, the chief of Serbia’s negotiating team, Borislav Stefanovic, told the daily newspaper Politika that Belgrade was not under any pressure to reach an agreement.

 “It’s understandable that some countries want us to move forward and to move faster, but that is also what we want [but] we will not sacrifice our national interest in Kosovo, our constitution or laws," he said.

“This dialogue is being led in order to solve some concrete problems, not because of someone else's assessments,” Stefanovic added.

He repeated that Serbia would do everything to meet the EU's conditions, but only “if the solutions are not conflict in conflict with our constitution, laws and national interests in Kosovo".