Serbia’s top diplomat backs compromise talks to end Kosovo impasse

Serbia's foreign minister has called for compromise over the disputed status of Kosovo, involving for some form of "demarcation" between areas governed by its large ethnic Albanian majority and those run by its much smaller ethnic Serb community.

Ivica Dacic said a peaceful resolution to the issue, which is crucial to both countries' hopes of EU membership, "could only be reached through agreement between Serbs and Albanians, in which each side gains and loses something".

"It is an idea of compromise based on historical and ethnic rights. An idea of dividing things into what is Serb and what is Albanian, and normalising our relations," Mr Dacic wrote in Serbia's Vecernje Novosti newspaper.

He called on his countrymen to stop fighting "utopian battles" over Kosovo, which is steeped in Serb history but broke away from Belgrade in a brutal 1998-9 war; a Nato bombing campaign drove Serb forces from Kosovo and, after a period of United Nations rule, it declared independence in 2008.

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Instead, Mr Dacic urged Serbs to salvage what they could from the current situation – in which more than 110 states recognise Kosovo’s independence – and press for autonomy for all Serb enclaves in the country, special status for its Orthodox monasteries and financial compensation for “usurped” property.

About 120,000 Serbs still live in 1.8 million-strong Kosovo, most of them in the north close to the Serbian border, in areas where resistance to rule from the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina is still strong.

National ‘dialogue’

Mr Dacic's suggestion chimes with a recent call from his close ally, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, for a national "dialogue" on how to resolve the stand-off over Kosovo, which is recognised as independent by the United States and 23 EU members, including Ireland; Russia is Serbia's main ally in rejecting its sovereignty.

It is still unclear exactly what Mr Vucic and his government are proposing, but Kosovo and its western allies have always ruled out any division of the country and further redrawing of Balkan borders.

In tweets directed at Mr Dacic, Kosovo's foreign minister Enver Hoxhaj said that "if [Serbia's] internal dialogue isn't about recognising Kosovo's independent statehood, it would be tantamount to failure".

"If Serbia continuously campaigns against Kosovo's membership of international organisations, for what normalisation are we talking about"

Separately, he added: “Kosovo is a multiethnic democracy w/internationally recognised borders. Serbia’s renewed ideas 4 border change are dangerous & unacceptable”.

Belgrade’s renewed enthusiasm for talks on Kosovo comes as the country stumbles towards a political crisis just two months after early elections.

That ballot failed to give any party a clear majority, and on Monday parliament in Pristina failed for a fourth time to elect a new speaker, which would allow the country’s president to nominate a new premier and set in motion the process of forming a new government.

Backroom dealing appears to be stalling the process, and on Sunday the US, Britain, Germany, France and Italy jointly urged the country's leaders to break the impasse and focus on governing and implementing vital reforms.