Belgrade "not ready to talk" with Kosovo, dialogue breaks off

Sep 28, 2011, 11:25 GMT

Brussels/Belgrade - Serbia refused to continue negotiations with Kosovo Wednesday when the European Union turned down its demand to change the agenda and open talks about the ongoing violence in the Serb-dominated north.

'The dialogue did not take place because the Serb delegation was not ready to proceed with discussions today,' EU facilitator Robert Cooper said in Brussels.

'The situation ... in northern Kosovo is not part of the dialogue nor the subject of any separate negotiations with Serbia,' he said.

Topics on the agenda for the seventh round of talks since March were energy, telecommunications and Kosovo's participation in regional initiatives, which is routinely vetoed by Serbia.

Belgrade already on Tuesday said it would not discuss anything but the problems in the border zone, where NATO peacekeepers clashed with Serb demonstrators the night before and during the day. Four peacekeepers and seven Serbs were injured in clashes.

'Presently the priority is the situation at border crossings, and for us no other topic exists,' Serbia's chief negotiator Borko Stefanovic said. 'I think in this situation it is unrealistic to talk about energy, telecommunications and regional initiatives.'

The EU has set progress in the talks as a crucial condition for Serbia to be formally recognized as an EU membership candidate in October.

Cooper said the dialogue 'will continue when the Serbian side is ready to re-engage' and stressed that the aim of the talks 'remains to discuss issues that are aimed at improving lives of people and bringing the parties closer to the EU.'

The talks were interrupted in July when Serbia refused to lift a de facto trade embargo on Kosovo goods.

That escalated into a trade war and tensions in northern Kosovo, when Pristina attempted to take control of border crossings in the north, one of few areas where Serbs outnumber ethnic Albanians.

Tensions erupted into violence on Tuesday, when NATO peacekeepers moved to dismantle roadblocks erected by Serbs in their enclave to protest their loss of control over the borders in mid-September.

The troops sealed several 'alternate' routes, which the Serbs had opened toward Serbia proper to circumvent controls at the official border crossings.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has vowed never to reconcile with it. Serbia politically and financially supports its compatriots in the north, encouraging them to continue resisting Pristina's rule.

Read more about EU

Read more about Kosovo