AlHijjah 23, 1433, Nov 8, 2012, SPA -- Serbia and Kosovo made progress toward normalizing relations, Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said after meeting his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci in Brussels late Wednesday, dpa reported. "It was a good and a useful meeting and I think we took several steps forward," he told Serbian media after the talks, carried out under the auspices of EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton. It was his second meeting with Thaci, after Ashton brokered the ground-breaking first talks in October. Ashton said the latest discussions "evolved around different aspects of normalisation of relations between" Serbia and Kosovo. The EU has been pushing for the full implementation of agreements made in the first seven rounds of talks, held at a lower level from March 2011 until February. It also wants Serbia to make compromises with the mostly Albanian Kosovo on the unofficial power structures that if finances in the north, which is populated by Serbs. "We also discussed how to enhance the protection of Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo," Ashton said. Dacic said that implementation of an earlier agreement on joint border controls is to begin in December in some locations. The next meeting will take place before the European Council meets on December 10, he said. The talks, facilitated by the EU, aim to remove the biggest obstacles to normal life that have resulted from Kosovo's secession from Serbia in 2008. Progress in the talks and implementation of agreements are a key condition for Serbia to begin EU membership talks.
