VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2018) EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Wednesday that she expected "difficult, but possible" negotiations on a sustainable agreement between Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels next week.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mogherini arrived in Vienna, where she will preside over a two-day informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers due to begin on Thursday.
"I will have a new session of the dialogue with both Presidents [of Serbia, Aleksander] Vucic and [of Kosovo, Hashim] Thaci in Brussels next week on Friday, 7 September. We will proceed with difficult, but as I said, possible talks on a legally binding agreement," Mogherini said following talks with Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen as quoted by the European External Action Service.
Serbia and the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo have been engaged in a conflict over their borders for years. In early August, Vucic said that he favored partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines as a means of avoiding further conflicts. According to this plan, Serbia would give up its southern areas, mostly inhabited by Albanians, for Kosovo's territories where Serbian population prevails. However, Thaci rejected the plan.
In 2008, Kosovo authorities unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, which still regards it as its Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. In 2013, the Brussels Agreement on normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo was signed as the European Union persuaded Serbia to begin cooperating with Kosovo. In 2015, an accord on forming the self-governing association of the Serb-dominated regions of Kosovo was signed. The EU-set deadline for the implementation of the above-mentioned agreements by Kosovo expired on August 4. Pristina's failure to stick to the terms of the agreements resulted in an escalation of tensions in the region.
