The ball is in EU court for Kosovo-Serbia talks: Belgrade
— filed under: Serbia, Kosovo, talks
(BELGRADE) - Serbia said on Wednesday the ball was in the European Union's court as talks between Belgrade and Pristina resumed in Brussels after months of stalemate caused by border disputes.
"The ball is in the European court, and not only with December 9 in mind," the date when EU should decide whether to grant Serbia candidacy status, Serbian government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic told Beta news agency.
Pristina "is not giving up its goal to use the dialogue towards confirming Kosovo's independence," which Belgrade has refused to recognise, Mihajlovic said.
Europe should "show whether it is for an impartial and just solution" of Kosovo problems, he added.
Serbia and Kosovo made limited progress Tuesday as they returned to the negotiating table to pursue tough talks to normalise ties that are key to Belgrade's hopes of winning entry to the EU.
The seventh round in a dialogue brokered by the European Union concluded with an agreement by both sides to mutually recognise each others' university diplomas and meet again by the end of November.
Belgrade key negotiator for the talks, Borko Stefanovic, told the daily Politika that Serbia would do "everything" to make progress in the negotiations.
"Not because of the delays and (EU) candidacy status, but because the problems are still there and we have to find a solution," Stefanovic said.
But his Kosovo counterpart Edita Tahiri complained about the slow progress of the talks.
"I believe we are in a situation in which we bring up documents which are not going to be applied," Tahiri told Politika.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade and the Serbs in northern Kosovo have rejected the move and still consider the region to be Serbia's southern province.
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/serbia-kosovo-talks.dnn
