Serbia-Kosovo meeting in Brussels gets postponed - EU official

"Out of abundance of caution related to COVID19, the Dialogue meeting scheduled for Monday next week will be postponed," the EU special representative for the dialogue for normalisation of Belgrade - Pristina relations, Miroslav Lajcak, said in his Twitter profile on Friday.

Last week, Lajcak said Serbia and Kosovo negotiators would continue talks on the settlement of mutual financial claims and arrangements but will drop communities issues from the agenda of their meeting in Brussels on September 28.

According to Kosovo prime minister Avdullah Hoti, however, the meeting was postponed because Serbia is insisting on signing an agreement on the establishment of Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo.

"As for the Community, you know our position. That topic is not open, because it was closed by signing the agreement in 2013 and ratified in the Assembly of Kosovo," Serbian public broadcaster RTS quoted Kosovo prime minister Avdullah Hoti as saying on Monday.

The Pristina-Belgrade dialogue, launched in 2010, aims for the parties to achieve a comprehensive legally binding agreement solving all outstanding issues in order for Serbia and Kosovo to progress on their European integration path. In 2013, Belgrade and Pristina signed the Brussels Agreement to begin normalising their relations, which envisages the establishment of Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hoti met in Brussels on September 7 to discuss for the first time arrangements for non-majority communities and the settlement of mutual financial claims and property issues as part of the EU-facilitated dialogue for the normalisation of Belgrade - Pristina relations.