New round of Belgrade-Priština talks postponed

BELGRADE -- EU mediator in the Belgrade-Priština talks Robert Cooper has decided to postpone the dialogue which was scheduled for June 14-15.

Belgrade and Priština teams are seen during one of the meetings (Tanjug, file)

This finally put an end to mutual accusations of Belgrade and Priština about who delayed the fifth round of the talks.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton’s Spokeswoman Maja Kocijančić said that Cooper had decided to postpone the new round of talks in order to give more time to both sides to work on possible agreements.

EU wants Belgrade and Priština to determine all technical and professional bases in order to reach agreements on some issues, sources from the EU said, adding that “the EU would want to reach first agreements as soon as possible”.

Head of Priština’s negotiating team Edita Tahiri previously said that the talks had been delayed because Serbia was afraid to sign an agreement on almost all issues that had been discussed, including freedom of movement, trade, energy and telecommunication.

Belgrade team chief Borislav Stefanović has denied the allegations, pointing out that both sides agreed to change the date.

“I don’t think it is fair to make such statements, especially by Priština since they know best who was most often against reaching of agreements and so on. That is not going to bring us closer to an agreement, I want to deny that we are afraid of any agreement."

"We are ready to make those agreements with Priština. I think we are already close, there are very few things left to fix on a conceptual paper between us. In that sense I am an optimist and everything else is just using this thing for internal political purposes,” Stefanović told B92.

The European Union (EU) pointed out several times that progress made in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue will affect the speed of EU integration.