Little progress in Serbia, Kosovo leaders’ EU-backed talks

By FLORENT BAJRAMI and LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo met in Brussels on Tuesday only to agree on joint work in finding the missing persons in their talks on the implementation of a European Union-backed plan to normalize ties between the former war foes. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell convened the Tuesday night meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Albin Kurti of Kosovo. They endorsed a declaration on 1,621 people who remain missing from the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, which was a Serbian province with an armed pro-independence movement at the time. But they were far apart on a draft on the establishment of an association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia does not recognize its statehood.