Groundbreaking talks between Serbia and Kosovo could take place in Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Saturday, confirming the bloc's readiness to "facilitate" them. Under EU pressure, Serbia dropped a hardline draft United Nations resolution that condemned Kosovo's secession and called for its status to be renegotiated, according to dpa. Instead, the text adopted Thursday welcomed the EU's readiness to orchestrate a "dialogue" between Belgrade and Pristina. "It's for the two parties, for Serbia and Kosovo to decide who and how and when. I have offered that we would be very happy to facilitate those talks, to host them here," Ashton said at the end of a two-day informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. Diplomats expect the two sides to focus on practical issues of cooperation such as trade, customs and crime fighting. But the talks would nevertheless carry huge political significance, as they would mark the first time Serbia spoke with its former province since it declared independence in February 2008. Signaling that high-profile political figures such as Serbian President Boris Tadic and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci would likely not be directly involved, Ashton said the exercise should not be "about fanfares and big dancing in the media." In return for its climbdown, several European foreign ministers argued Friday that Serbia should be rewarded with an acceleration of its EU membership bid. But Ashton remained guarded on the issue, saying she "did not put anything on the table" to convince Belgrade.
