Serbia and Kosovo leaders hold fresh talks

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti started fresh talks in Brussels Wednesday, as the EU seeks to breathe new life into stalled negotiations between the two sides.

The sitdown comes nearly a year after the bitter rivals last met, following repeated rounds of failed negotiations.

"Today, the new round of dialogue will hopefully send a different message and end on a different note," said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.

Talks between Serbia and Kosovo aimed at hammering out a landmark deal to pave the way for a semblance of normalised ties all but crumbled last year.

During a high-stakes summit in North Macedonia in March 2023, President Aleksandar Vucic refused to sign the EU- and US-backed Ohrid agreement -- citing a pain in his right hand that would likely last "years".

Diplomats have continued to call for the implementation of the agreement, but the unsigned deal remains unenforced by either side.

As talks collapsed, bouts of unrest erupted in Serb-majority areas across northern Kosovo, culminating in a bloody standoff between Serb gunmen and Kosovo authorities at a monastery near the border with Serbia in late September last year.

Tensions continued to flare after the Pristina government made the euro its only legal currency recognised in its territory in February -- effectively outlawing the use of the Serbian dinar currency.

That put pressure on Serbia's ability to continue financing a parallel health, education, and social security systems for Kosovo Serbs.

Kurti has defended the move as a means to crack down on the large amounts of cash pouring into Kosovo from Serbia and to bring organised crime groups to heel.

Ahead of the talks in Brussels, Prime Minister Milos Vucevic told AFP Serbia was ready to discuss "compromises" over Kosovo.

"We are ready to make agreements and compromises, compromises that mean neither side is an absolute winner or an absolute loser," he said during an interview in Belgrade.

Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has raged since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s that drew a NATO intervention against Belgrade, which views Kosovo as a breakaway region.

Pristina declared independence in 2008, a move Serbia has refused to acknowledge as it views Kosovo as the nation's historic homeland.