When the Prime Ministers of Serbia and Kosovo on 19 April reached their first agreement on the principles governing the normalisation of relations, they not only settled to overcome long-standing ethnic enmities in the ...

Serbia is to get a date for EU accession talks, Kosovo is to get some control over its north and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton got kudos after a breakthrough in Kosovo-Serbia talks. The deal in Brussels on ...

Talks on resolving future Kosovo-Serbia relations and their EU accession prospects are set to go the wire after an extraordinary meeting in Brussels broke up without agreement on Wednesday (17 April). The dialogue ...

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has bluntly told Serbia it cannot open EU accession talks unless it cedes control of north Kosovo. "An agreement on starting negotiations on Serbia joining the EU, which it ...

Germany has warned Serbia that its EU accession prospects hang on a result in the ongoing negotiations on Kosovo. A German government spokesman told EUobserver in Berlin on Wednesday (3 April): "We regret that the talks ...

With a key new round in the ongoing, EU-mediated negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina due on 2 April, little is being made public about the actual content of the talks. And one could be forgiven for expecting ...

Kosovo is lagging behind in crime fighting reforms, limiting its prospects of obtaining EU visa-free travel. The European Commission in a report released on Tuesday (12 February) described Kosovo’s capacity to fight ...

Kosovo's foreign minister has said that a meeting between the Presidents of Kosovo and Serbia is "de facto recognition" by Serbia of Kosovo's independence. Serbian chief Tomislav Nikolic, an outspoken nationalist, ...

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic is still promoting the idea of autonomy for ethnic Serbs in Kosovo, but only if Pristina agrees. Speaking to EUobserver in Brussels on Friday (18 January) following the last round of ...

Kosovo leader Hashim Thaci has said Serbia should stop talking about autonomy for north Kosovo and pull out its security forces instead. Speaking to EUobserver in Brussels on Thursday (17 January) ahead of a dinner with ...

Kosovo's envoy to the EU has said Serbia's proposal to give autonomy to Serbs in north Kosovo is an attempt to divide his country. Ilir Dugolli told EUobserver on Thursday (10 January): "One clearly has the impression ...

The almost €700 million in EU funds spent in Kosovo between 2007 and 2011 to improve the rule of law and rein in corruption have produced dismal results, an EU auditing body said this week. A lack of co-ordination ...

The European Commission has said Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia should take steps forward in their bids to join the EU. Its annual enlargement report out on Wednesday (10 October) recommended that member states should ...

Kosovo's foreign minister has said the end of supervised independence should make Serbia realise it can never divide Kosovo or get it back. Speaking to EUobserver from Pristina on Sunday (9 September), ahead of ...

EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy Tuesday (4 September) encouraged Serbia’s Prime Minister Ivica Dačić to step up reforms on its path to EU membership and open up greater dialogue with Kosovo. “A visible and ...

Germany - the EU's strongest economy and the main decision-maker on the euro crisis - should take charge of EU intervention in the Western Balkans by putting Kosovo on its own two feet. What Berlin 20 years ago proposed ...

Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro should join forces to build a new and permanent co-operation structure aimed at boosting their political and economic relations, with a final common goal of accelerating EU ...

Serbia's new leader has said his country can one day join the EU without recognising Kosovo. Tomislav Nikolic made the remarks after meeting top EU officials in Brussels on Thursday (14 June) on his first state trip ...

Serbia's new President, Tomislav Nikolic, has told Russia he would give up EU membership for Kosovo, but wants to have both. Nikolic went to Moscow on Friday (26 May) in his first post-election but pre-inauguration ...

Eulex, the European police mission in Kosovo, will reduce its staff by 25 to 30 percent from mid-June onward. Speaking in Brussels on Friday (May 25), EU civilian operations commander, Hansjoerg Haber, told press the ...

History repeats itself in the Balkans. Right? The cliche has just been proved wrong again. Last Sunday (19 May) we witnessed a contest pitting the incumbent Boris Tadic, seen as the EU's best bet, against Tomislav ...

On his death in 1898, Otto Von Bismarck is quoted to have said that "If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans." He was right. A decade or so after his death a ...

Leskovac, once known as the Serbian Manchester, is home to a textile industry that began in the 19th century, flourished under Communism, and has survived - albeit barely - until today. The town, which lies in the south ...

The European Union and the US have a crucial role to play in Bosnia and Macedonia amid new inter-ethnic tensions in the small but strategic Balkan countries. There is widespread expectation that a future agreement on ...

Four years after the EU's biggest-ever police mission came to Kosovo it has not indicted any top suspects on organised crime, posing questions about its work and the integrity of Kosovo's leaders. Eulex itself is proud ...

The EU commission has started talks on visa-free travel with Kosovo. But huge problems - from regional politics to organised crime - stand in the way. EU justice commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom went to Pristina on ...

Fudged language in a new agreement on north Kosovo shows how far the EU still has to go in its bid to normalise the most explosive place in the Balkans. An EU press release over the weekend - entitled "EU facilitated ...

Nothing has changed on the ground in north Kosovo after Serbia agreed a new border pact designed to help it get EU candidate status. A spokesman for the Eulex police mission in Kosovo told EUobserver on Saturday (3 ...

Sweden has said the EU should put pressure on Pristina to improve relations with Serbs in north Kosovo following three months of escalating violence. Foreign minister Carl Bildt sent a letter to EU institutions on 17 ...

International and local reports indicate that economic stagnation is one of Kosovo's most serious challenges. The financial crisis in Europe has made the situation worse. Lawlessness in north Kosovo, inhabited mainly by ...

The continued deadlock in Kosovo-Serb relations after this summer's violence is likely to prevent member states from granting Belgrade official EU candidate status at an upcoming summit on 9 December. "France is in ...

Nato and EU police (Eulex) on Thursday (13 October) stepped up their patrols in northern Kosovo and said they will dismantle barricades set up by Serbs, advising them to stay away from "illegal" protests. The joint ...

Ethnic Albanian policemen are to return to border crossing points in Serb-controlled north Kosovo at 8am local time on Friday (16 September), despite warnings by Belgrade the move could end in violence. Francoise ...

Serbia has voiced sympathy for the family of an ethnic Albanian policeman killed in north Kosovo. But the gesture of good will comes amid harsh words on the future of the disputed region. "We strongly condemn this crime ...