Kosovo: Serbia
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Karen Lumley (Redditch, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the progress of talks between Kosovo and Serbia on normalising relations between those countries.

David Lidington (Minister of State (Europe and NATO), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Aylesbury, Conservative)

The EU-facilitated dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo is continuing. A meeting took place from 22-24 February 2012 where agreement was reached on Kosovo's participation in regional fora and a technical protocol concluded on implementation of an agreement on management of the border between Kosovo and Serbia.

Previous meetings under the dialogue have led to a number of agreements between the two parties, including on civil records, cadastral records, freedom of movement, customs stamps, university diplomas and integrated border management. Implementation of these agreements is underway.

Energy and telecommunications are two headings under the dialogue on which agreements have yet to be concluded. There are likely to be further areas, yet to be formally added by the parties to the dialogue agenda, where agreement between Serbia and Kosovo will be needed in order to fulfil the objectives of the dialogue. The dialogue aims to improve the lives of citizens in both countries and to move both Serbia and Kosovo further down the path to EU accession.