Serbia-Kosovo talks may tackle fractious border post issue

(BRUSSELS) - The EU confirmed Thursday the resumption of talks between Serbia and Kosovo next week as the clock ticks on a key hurdle in Belgrade's long bid to win membership of the European Union.

"We expect there will be a new round of the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue on Monday," said a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, whose office has been brokering the talks since March.

The talks, aimed at easing painful day-to-day problems for ordinary people stemming from Kosovo's breakaway from Serbia three years ago, broke down six weeks ago due to a surge of violence on the disputed Balkan border.

An EU diplomat said a proposal to end tension over the manning of border posts may be discussed at the one-day talks in Brussels.

This would involve an agreement from both sides to a system of "integrated border management" at disputed border posts in northern Kosovo, where members of the region's ethnic Serb majority are resisting the presence of customs and border officials from Pristina.

The deadlock had caused ugly violence with NATO-led peacekeepers in the KFOR force.

The EU source said the proposal would suggest placing disputed border posts under the joint management of Serbia and Kosovo, with members of the European rule of law mission Eulex -- combining officials and police -- overseeing the posts.

"This will not be implemented next week," said the source, who asked not to be named. "But we could have some sort of framework agreement enabling us to move forward."

In Belgrade, Serbia's chief negotiator Borko Stefanovic estimated the agreement over the crossings could not be reached "at this moment."

"There can be no Kosovo flag, border stone, inter-state accord... The Serbs can not be stopped from getting in and out of Kosovo with Serbian documents or licence plates," Stefanovic told reporters here.

For Belgrade, the line between northern Kosovo and Serbia is an "administrative border" and not, in any case, a "border," Stefanovic said.

Progress on the difficult relations between the two sides is seen as vital to Serbia's progress towards EU membership after Brussels warned last month that Belgrade might not win candidacy status at a summit December 9 if it failed to resume the dialogue with Pristina.

Other items on Monday's talks will be mutual recognition of university diplomas and representation of Kosovo in regional bodies, currently blocked by Serbia.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade and the Serbs of northern Kosovo have rejected the move and still considers it as its southern province.