"Changing format would disturb Belgrade-Pristina dialogue"

EU officials feel that a move to change the format of the Belgrade-Pristina talks wouldn't expedite a deal to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

Instead it would only weaken the process, they said, Beta is reporting.

Instead of the substance of the talks, the negotiators will have to deal with who should be involved, at least for a while, they have cautioned.

Beta has learned this from European Commission sources privy to the talks, who underlined that it was precisely at the latest meeting in Brussels between the Serbian and Kosovo presidents, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci, that an agreement had been reached to step up the effort to make a legally binding comprehensive agreement to arrange the Belgrade-Pristina relationship.

The officials in Brussels said that it's also necessary to implement the agreements that were reached earlier, about the Community of Serbian Municipalities, as well as other matters, including energy.

They underlined that only if the pace at which those open issues were resolved was quickened, the principle of "communicating vessels" would apply, and the talks to produce a comprehensive agreement would move forward.

Both sides are working on it, as well as the European External Action Service (EEAS) mediating team, including Angelina Eichhorst, traveling and maintaining contacts with the authorities in Belgrade and Pristina. She did it before, and her trips are not part of "circular diplomacy," but rather regular, now a little quicker, contacts with the negotiators.

The EU sources say it's not impossible to have another round of talks by the end of the month.

Answering a remark that Washington is visibly in favour of a speedier dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and a quicker final solution, whereas the authorities in Pristina insist that the US should have a direct role in the dialogue, the EEAS sources...

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