A new round of Kosovo–Serbia negotiations at the level of chief negotiators is taking place in Brussels, under the mediation of EU Special Envoy Peter Sørensen, marking the first such meeting of the year.
The meeting was initially announced by Serbian authorities on Tuesday evening and later confirmed by the European Union, while Kosovo’s acting government has so far issued no official statement regarding the talks.
The Office of Acting Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi has not confirmed whether he has traveled to Brussels for a meeting with Serbia’s chief negotiator Petar Petković, nor has it provided any details on Kosovo’s participation. Attempts by Gazeta Express to obtain clarification from Bislimi’s adviser, Klisman Kadiu, went unanswered.
The European Union confirmed that the talks are part of the regular dialogue process.
“We can confirm that the EU Special Representative for the Dialogue, Peter Sørensen, is chairing the regular chief negotiators’ meeting in Brussels on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia,” the EU said in an official response.
The meeting follows Sørensen’s recent visits to Prishtina and Belgrade, during which the Danish diplomat expressed optimism that 2026 could help overcome the deadlock that has affected the dialogue process.
High-level political talks have not taken place since 2023, when tensions escalated following the Banjska attack, significantly disrupting negotiations between the two sides.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Sørensen is expected to hold separate bilateral meetings with the Kosovo and Serbian chief negotiators, followed by a possible trilateral meeting.
One of the key issues on the agenda is the Joint Declaration on Missing Persons, an agreement reached in 2023 between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, but which has yet to be fully implemented.
Meanwhile, Serbian media reported that the Serbian delegation led by Petković has already arrived in Brussels. Serbia is expected to insist on the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities and to raise concerns about what it describes as the “difficult position of Serbs in Kosovo.”
The last technical-level dialogue round was held in September, highlighting the prolonged stagnation of the EU-facilitated normalization process.
