Brussels, 22/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - In negotiations held under the auspices of the EU, Serbia and Kosovo met on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 November to discuss border posts and, more especially, “the concept of Integrated Border Management as a way forward to find a European solution for crossing points”, a Commission press release states. Efforts to find agreement, however, proved vain.
On Monday 21, Serbian negotiator Borislav Stefanovic said that discussion of the issue had been put back until the next day and acknowledged that it was unrealistic to expect any agreement on the border for the moment. He called on the EU to continue to push Kosovo to accept a compromise. “There is no room for any meeting of positions”, he said. Dr Edita Tahirin who leads the Kosovar delegation, said that, for the border posts, she had proposed “joint control in line with European standards”.
During discussions, progress was made on effective and inclusive regional cooperation. The two sides will return to this point in forthcoming discussions, before the end of this month “with a view to reaching an agreement, in the context of the EU's overall strategy for the region”.
The delegations also resumed the debate on the implementation of previously reached agreements and committed themselves to proceed rapidly in this process. They welcomed progress made this week in the technical working groups, including on civil registry and freedom of movement.
A positive point was the agreement reached on qualifications. The two parties agreed that the European University Association would be asked to certify diplomas issued by universities of each party for use by the other in connection with further education and/or public employment. (CG/transl.rt)