On Saturday 25 August, the European External Action Service announced a new meeting between Kosovo's President Hashim Thaçi and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić, in Brussels on 7 September, in the context of the dialogue for the normalisation of relations.
"The high representative will continue the discussions with the two presidents on the comprehensive normalisation agreement with a view to making concrete progress, given the priority attached to the EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and the European Union perspective of the region", the EEAS added.
On Monday 27 August, the EEAS spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic, said that the two parties were working on a "viable, sustainable and realistic solution in accordance with international law". "It is the guiding principles that we have in this final phase of the dialogue", she added, saying that space needed to be given to the parties for them to agree on the content of a comprehensive normalisation agreement.
On 25 August, European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn created controversy by saying that a change of border could be part of the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. "Whatever the definitive solution, and we should not exclude anything (...) it should respect the fact that the essential objective is stability in the region", he said at a conference in Alpbach, Austria. The Serbian and Kosovan presidents seem to envisage a possible modification of borders.
"We should (...) leave it (to Serbia and Kosovo) ...to find a solution, which we will support if the general framework is correct", Hahn added.
Hahn said that the Serbian and Kosovan presidents had assured him that "any bilateral agreement would be specific and tailor-made, and not a precedent, and especially a contribution to peace, stability and the EU path". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)