Stano: Technical dialogue between Belgrade, Pristina to resume Tuesday

BRUSSELS - A new round of technical dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina at chief negotiators level will be held in Brussels on Tuesday - EU spokesman Peter Stano said on Monday the priority and the agenda was determined by the "top urgency of starting the implementation of the agreement on the path to normalisation" between the two parties.

"I can confirm that tomorrow there will be a meeting of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue at the level of chief negotiators, as announced by the High Representative last Wednesday after the high-level meeting of (Serbian) President (Aleksandar) Vucic and (Pristina's) PM (Albin) Kurti, and the priority, of course, and the agenda, actually, is determined by the top urgency of starting the implementation of the agreement on the path to normalisation," Stano told a Brussels press briefing in response to a Tanjug query about the main topic of the meeting.

Asked by another reporter whether the fact that five EU member states did not recognise the so-called Kosovo was in line with an agreement on normalisation of relations, Stano noted that the objective of the dialogue was normalisation and that, as the facilitator, the EU was tasked with helping the parties achieve a normalisation of relations.

He said that, while there was no recognition there, recognition would be a logical consequence of normalisation and come much later in the process.

The new round of technical dialogue comes after last Wednesday's high-level dialogue attended by Vucic and Kurti, who, however, did not meet.

Vucic said at the time Kurti had not wanted to speak with him in Brussels because Pristina wanted no dialogue, but only a recognition of the so-called Kosovo.

The chief negotiators last met in Brussels in mid-May in what was a seventh round of dialogue on Pristina's decision to abolish dinar cash operations in Kosovo-Metohija.