Tonight Kosovo and Serbian Presidents meet in Brussels with Mogherini

Tonight the presidents of Serbia and Kosovo are met in Brussels. With this meeting the Balkan neighbors attempt to normalize their relations, intermediated by the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Federica Mogherini. The EU insists that both countries should progress with normalizing their relations through this dialogue, and sees the EU integration path as basic conditions for both countries. President Thaci said that he doesn’t expect any miracle, but an increase of responsibilities and commitments. Serbian President Vucic, on the other hand, said that his country is ready for compromise as regards unresolved matters with Kosovo. The high level meeting comes after Pristina-Belgrade technical talks held from 19-21 March that according to the EU officials no progress was achieved. One of the main topics during this meeting is implementation of the Agreement on establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities. Serbia is insisiting in implementation of this agreement. The EU-sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina has already produced agreements in areas such as freedom of movement, justice, and the status of the Serbian minority in Kosovo -- as well as enabling Serbia to start EU accession talks and Brussels to sign an Association Agreement with Kosovo. Ahead of the Brussels meeting, Vucic was in New York to meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while Thaci was in Washington for talks with U.S. officials, including Wess Mitchell, the assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia. “I’m here to coordinate our engagements with the U.S. government, since we are now entering a new and an important phase in a dialogue,” Thaci told RFE/RL “Our commitment has to be very clearly coordinated today and in the future. It is a process that will open a way for achieving a final agreement to completely normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia,” he said. Thaci said the “sensitive issue” requires coordination with “all friends and partners,” but he added that “the main address” for Kosovo remains in Washington. Kosovo’s president said he was working on an agreement with Serbia that would be legally binding and based on the condition that Serbia will recognize Kosovo, and that Kosovo will get a seat at the UN. He also said he hopes an agreement would mean “the end to all dark chapters and open the way to a new era of cooperation, understanding, normalization, and conciliation.” Vucic, meanwhile, said he told Guterres that Serbia was “ready to compromise, but not to sacrifice all of its interests." "I will do my best as the president to protect our interests. I have to go before the people, to offer something to our people," he told Serbian media from New York. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following a decade-long struggle, including a bloody period of armed resistance in 1998-99 that ended after a 78-day air-strike campaign by NATO against Serbia to stop a crackdown against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Some 117 countries recognize Kosovo’s independence, although Serbia and its ally Russia do not.