New round of Kosovo dialogue on September 8

BRUSSELS EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the 15th round of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue that a new round of talks would be held on September 8. Ashton stated late on Tuesday in Brussels said that both Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaci “reiterated their commitment to successful elections with the widest possible participation.” New round of Kosovo dialogue on September 8 Ashton said she and the two prime minister discussed implementation of the April 19 agreement and way forward on the November 3 municipal elections. “We will continue our discussions on September 8,” the European foreign policy chief said. As there is almost complete agreement in the Belgrade-Pristina talks on telecommunications, energy is a bigger issue, while the design of Kosovo local election ballots will require "a rational decision," Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said after the talks. After meeting with Kosovo Premier Hashim Thaci and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton, Dacic stressed that the run-up to the local vote should be organized to allow the greatest possible turnout. He underscored that voter and ticket registration deadlines must be extended and, on the topic of ballot design, emphasized that there must be no bargaining about which side has won or lost. "With a view to the registration of as great a number of Serbs as possible for voting and of Serb tickets, we expect that deadline for voter registration and submitting tickets to be somehow extended a little -- two to three weeks, so it can all be wrapped up successfully," Dacic stated. "We have brought our stances closer somewhat in the talks," said the Serbian premier further, pointing out that energy talks were proving more problematic, as the issues were both property-related and political. According to him, telecommunications are effectively a done deal -- the topics in these talks being the three-digit international dialing code for Kosovo, which requires a certain procedure, and the dealings of Serbian mobile telephony operators in Kosovo. A new round of political dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina ended in Brussels today with no concrete agreement on the most important issues, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci told reporters on Tuesday. The talks were very constructive and progress has been made, but there are still a lot of technical details to discuss, Thaci told reporters after seven hours of talks with Dacic. He noted that progress has been made in the matters of energy, telecommunications and justice, while the issue of controversial symbols on the ballots for the November 3 local elections remains open. "This is something that can only be dealt with by the Central Election Commission," said Thaci. (Tanjug, file) Tanjug

New round of Kosovo dialogue on September 8

Ashton said she and the two prime minister discussed implementation of the April 19 agreement and way forward on the November 3 municipal elections.

“We will continue our discussions on September 8,” the European foreign policy chief said.

As there is almost complete agreement in the Belgrade-Priština talks on telecommunications, energy is a bigger issue, while the design of Kosovo local election ballots will require "a rational decision," Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić said after the talks.

After meeting with Kosovo Premier Hashim Thaci and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton, Dačić stressed that the run-up to the local vote should be organized to allow the greatest possible turnout.

He underscored that voter and ticket registration deadlines must be extended and, on the topic of ballot design, emphasized that there must be no bargaining about which side has won or lost.

"With a view to the registration of as great a number of Serbs as possible for voting and of Serb tickets, we expect that deadline for voter registration and submitting tickets to be somehow extended a little -- two to three weeks, so it can all be wrapped up successfully," Dačić stated.

"We have brought our stances closer somewhat in the talks," said the Serbian premier further, pointing out that energy talks were proving more problematic, as the issues were both property-related and political.

According to him, telecommunications are effectively a done deal -- the topics in these talks being the three-digit international dialing code for Kosovo, which requires a certain procedure, and the dealings of Serbian mobile telephony operators in Kosovo.

A new round of political dialogue between Belgrade and Priština ended in Brussels today with no concrete agreement on the most important issues, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci told reporters on Tuesday.

The talks were very constructive and progress has been made, but there are still a lot of technical details to discuss, Thaci told reporters after seven hours of talks with Dačić.

He noted that progress has been made in the matters of energy, telecommunications and justice, while the issue of controversial symbols on the ballots for the November 3 local elections remains open.

"This is something that can only be dealt with by the Central Election Commission," said Thaci.