Brussels – Here we go again. Amid the political and institutional crises in Serbia and Kosovo, another – ultimately unsuccessful – attempt was made to revive the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, which has reached an unprecedented level of deadlock in its 16-year history: 40 months without a trilateral high-level meeting, and counting.
“Progress on the normalisation of relations and advancement on the EU path have to go hand in hand,” said High Representative Kaja Kallas on 22 September, making public her separate bilateral meetings with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. Recalling that the agreements reached in 2023 through the EU-facilitated Dialogue “are binding,” the EU’s foreign policy chief made clear that “their implementation is not a favour to Brussels but owed to their citizens and a region waiting for normal relations.”
For the last couple of years, in particular, political instability in both countries has slowed down the work of Special Representative Peter Sørensen, to the point that Kallas has not chaired a single trilateral high-level meeting since becoming High Representative in autumn 2024.
After almost two years of a societal crisis triggered by the collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy on 1 November 2024, which claimed the lives of 16 people, Serbia is heading towards very delicate early elections – a sort of showdown between President Vučić and the Student List. Meanwhile, since February 2025, Kosovo has still been struggling to emerge from a persistent institutional crisis, with Prime Minister Kurti making yet another attempt to find a delicate compromise to elect a new Head of State and avoid a fourth parliamentary election in 19 months.
“The EU will continue to be an even-handed arbitrator,” confirmed High Representative Kallas. “But facilitation cannot substitute for political will in Belgrade and Pristina. It is time to move forward.”
A stalled Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue
The formal talks between Belgrade and Pristina – which began on 8 March 2011 – were the first in a series of negotiation rounds mediated by the European Union. The three main issues on the table were regional cooperation in the Western Balkans, freedom of movement between the two countries, and the alignment of national laws.
Seven months of negotiations produced initial agreements, including the end of the trade embargo, Belgrade’s recognition of Pristina’s customs stamps, and the exchange of land registry records and civil status documents related to births, deaths, and marriages in Kosovo. A further year and a half of technical-level agreements led to the first high-level Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in early 2013, chaired by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton.
The first major success was the signing of the First Agreement of Principles Governing the Normalisation of Relations – informally known as the Brussels Agreement – on 19 April 2013. This enabled work to begin on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Kosovo and the opening of Serbia’s EU accession negotiations.
However, two major issues remained unresolved: Belgrade’s recognition of Pristina’s sovereignty and the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities in Kosovo, according to the Brussels Agreement.
From 2014 onwards, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini was tasked with mediating in an increasingly tense environment. The Belgrade-Pristina dialogue stalled in November 2018, when the Kosovar government imposed a 100% tariff on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The deadlock between the two sides lasted until 12 July 2020, when EU High Representative Josep Borrell and then-EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, Miroslav Lajčák, brought the leaders of both countries back to the negotiating table three times that year. While these meetings did not produce a decisive breakthrough, a final agreement was considered in Brussels to be “a matter of months, not years.”
Tension escalated in northern Kosovo during the so-called ‘car plate dispute’ in mid-September 2021. Pristina required all Serbian vehicles entering the country to replace their number plates, affecting the Serb minority in the border region. The issue was temporarily resolved through EU mediation, but the absence of a permanent solution led to renewed tensions. By the end of July 2022, roadblocks and barricades appeared at border crossings, and two unsuccessful high-level meetings in Brussels failed to break the deadlock.
The situation worsened when the Serb List (the dominant Serb political party in Kosovo, aligned with Belgrade’s interests) took control of protests. In November 2022, mass resignations occurred in the region’s public institutions, including the mayors of Kosovska Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvečan, and Leposavić. Early elections were scheduled for December 2022 but were postponed to April 2023 due to new barricades erected at the end of the year at border crossings in northern Kosovo.
Meanwhile, the EU–mediated dialogue saw a significant development. On 27 February 2023, the 11-point Brussels Agreement defined the key commitments that both parties were expected to uphold. Although the text was not signed, it became binding through the implementation annex agreed at the meeting in Ohrid (North Macedonia) on 18 March. The two agreements became an integral part of the European integration path for both countries.
The next crisis emerged in May 2023, when protests against the newly elected mayors in Zubin Potok, Zvečan, Leposavić, and Kosovska Mitrovica escalated into violent clashes involving NATO-led KFOR troops. After an emergency meeting was convened in Brussels, “temporary and reversible” EU measures were imposed on Kosovo, due to Pristina’s failure to adopt a “constructive attitude” towards de-escalation.
The situation further deteriorated following a terrorist attack near Banjska Monastery on 24 September 2023. A day of clashes between Kosovar police forces and a group of around 30 armed men left one police officer and three attackers dead. Milan Radoičić, deputy leader of the Serb List party, later confirmed his involvement. Links to Belgrade emerged, while the United States denounced a “large military build-up” near the administrative boundary.
Following the resolution of the ‘car plate dispute’ through mutual recognition of vehicle documentation between December 2023 and January 2024, Pristina’s enforcement of the euro as the sole legal tender from 1 February 2024 disrupted public services in northern Kosovo, which had continued to operate under currency arrangements introduced in 2002. The last high-level bilateral meetings were hold on 26 June 2024, but it yielded no progress.
