European Union Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton has said that she plans to hold joint talks with Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic in Brussels next week.
The planned talks are aimed at advancing the implementation of an EU-mediated deal agreed last month for normalizing relations between Serbia and its breakaway former province, she said in a statement on Tuesday.
"I have invited Prime Minister Dacic and Prime Minister Thaci for a meeting next week, on 21 May, in Brussels, to discuss the joint steps they need to take for the implementation of the April agreement," Ashton said.
"A swift implementation is of crucial importance and I am very much looking forward to discussing it with both Prime Ministers," she added.
Notably, the landmark deal was agreed last month at the end of two days' talks between Dacic and Thaci in Brussels. The talks were part of a last ditch effort initiated by Ashton after eight rounds of discussions between Dacic and Thaci over the past six months for an amicable settlement failed.
By agreeing to the deal, Serbia conceded that Pristina has legal authority over the whole Kosovo territory. But it does not imply that Serbia has recognized Kosovo's independence. Moreover, the deal will not help Kosovo in securing a U.N. membership or similar privileges on the international stage.
In February 2008, ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. But Belgrade has steadfastly refused to grant recognition to Kosovo. Nonetheless, some 63 countries, including the U.S. and most of the EU Member-States, have recognized Kosovo's independence thus far.
The EU had been facilitating dialogue between the two parties since 2011 in an effort to ease tensions triggered by Kosovo's unilateral independence declaration. The talks focused mainly on areas deemed crucial to Kosovo's existence and development as an independent nation.
Currently, Belgrade is attempting to convince ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo to accept the EU-mediated deal, which gives them their own police and justice representatives within the Kosovan system.
Tensions between ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians have flared up over the years, particularly in the north of Kosovo. Incidentally, Kosovo's northern region has an ethnic Serbian majority, unlike the rest of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians are in majority.
The minority ethnic Serb community has been opposing Kosovo's independence from Serbia, as well as the authority of the Kosovo government in Pristina.
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