Nikolic: Pristina has relented, agreement close

“Pristina, which has so far insisted on every solution having to fit in into their legal frameworks, finally gave in,” Nikolic told a press conference after a meeting between Serbia's top officials and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. "The agreement will be signed on March 20 or March 28," said the Serbian president, adding that this might encourage the European Union to grant Serbia a date for the start of EU accession talks. Nikolic took part in the talks with Ashton together with Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Vice Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. The talks with Ashton were sincere and concrete, they addressed necessary changes to laws that the Pristina authorities had passed, but also laws of the Republic of Serbia, so as to ensure the protection for the Serb community in line with European standards, Nikolic said. The Serbian president, prime minister and vice prime minister talked with the EU's foreign policy chief over a working dinner that lasted two and a half hours. The meeting was scheduled on the initiative of Brussels, as it has become obvious that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina got "stuck" on the issue of powers to be enjoyed by an association of Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo. The Belgrade-Pristina framework provides for two more rounds of talks between Belgrade and Pristina. On April 16, Ashton should submit a report to the Council of Ministers on the results of the dialogue. Photo Tanjug/The Council of the European Union Ashton: Reach agreements on open issues asap EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said that in the meeting she had with Serbia's top officials on Monday evening she underlined the importance of reaching agreements on the open issues as soon as possible, taking into account that she would submit a report on the progress achieved in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in April. “In the meeting today I stressed the importance of reaching agreements on the open issues between the two sides as soon as possible. In line with the December 2012 Council Conclusions, I will report to the Council on the agreements reached and the work underway to implement them in April," the EU's foreign policy chief said in a release. According to Ashton, the discussion was “open and substantial”. “We reviewed progress in the dialogue so far. We spoke in particular about the implementation of the agreements already reached and about the need to finalise discussions on the open issues, notably on northern Kosovo, in view of the next meeting of the dialogue for normalisation of relations on 20 March in Brussels,” the release reads.