Even an unsuccessful run in Kosovo-Serbia talks, all that happened yesterday in Brussels

Kosovo and Serbia's chief negotiators met yesterday in Brussels with European Union envoy Miroslav Lajcak in a new round of talks, amid debates over the situation in Kosovo's north and EU efforts to push the sides towards implementing the Ohrid Agreement.

Lajcak met two sides, but did not have a trilateral meeting. The European Emissar has said he is disappointed that he did not have a trilateral meeting.

Lajcak has said he regrets that the emergency issues were addressed at a trilateral meeting.

He has added that it will remain available to the parties and will continue in the coming weeks.

I expected the two chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels today and their delegations for separate meetings. I'm sorry we didn't handle the most urgent issues in a trilateral format today. I remain available to the parties and will continue in the following weeks”, Lajcak wrote on Wednesday.

For Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bissimin, it was Petar Petkoviq who conditioned the agenda of the trilateral meeting with unacceptable demands for Kosovo, but did not disclose the requirements.

There was only one point in the agenda, moving forward with implementation of the agreement on normalising relations. But it was stressed that additional topics could be discussed if both sides agree. We agreed on that, but Serbia wanted to condition its participation in the meeting with additional topics in the agenda, which were not acceptable to the Kosovo side. The meeting took place in the bilatheral format, while the trilate meeting did not occur, due to Serbia's refusal to participate in such a meeting. For its part, Kosovo through its chief negotiator has agreed to hold the trilate meeting, according to the mediator's predetermined agenda, where the only topic of discussion was to be the way ahead of the implementation of the Basic Agreement and the Compliance Annex”, Bislim said.

During the meeting there, the issue of opening the bridge over the Iber River in Mitrovica was also discussed.

Through the announcement by the prime minister's office, it became known that Bislimi has stressed that according to the EU and European Commission reports since 2014, the bridge should be opened without delay to further.

“Mbi freedom of movement, Deputy Prime Minister briefed Mr. Lajcak on the ease of the government's patent-viser conversion for citizens of the Serb community and their support in the process.

Once, Bislimi has said this issue has been addressed and agreed on in Brussels under the dialogue process.

The “It must be opened under the existing agreement, which is named as a symbol of normalisation”, Bislimi has declared.

On the other hand, Serbia's chief negotiator Petar Petkovic said during a press conference that at the meeting he has presented the measures published by Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic for resolving the situation in Kosovo's north, underlining that Serbia is ready for compromise, but without trilateral meetings negotiations have no meaning.

Petkov has charged that Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi has declined to have a trilateral meeting. “He has refused to meet with representatives of Belgrade because we have insisted on topics such as the AKS, postal services and implementation issues of the Ohrid Agreement. Imagine when he won't talk about these important things”, Petkov said.