Direct talks between the Serbian president and the Prime Minister of Kosovo will resume, jointly announced Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, following a videoconference summit on the Balkans.

Discussions will resume on Sunday via videoconference, then next Thursday face to face in Brussels to try to normalize relations between Belgrade and the former Serbian province which proclaimed its independence in 2008.

"President (Serbian Aleksandar) Vucic and Prime Minister (Kosovar Avdullah) Hoti have agreed to resume dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, which has been interrupted since November 2018", announced the French President and the German Chancellor in a joint statement, confirming the information obtained from diplomatic sources.

"The European Union will continue to facilitate their dialogue, with the aim of normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo, by means of a comprehensive, final and legally binding agreement", add the two European leaders.

The normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina is one of the conditions set by the European Union to complete the accession negotiations - started in January 2014 - from Serbia to the bloc.

In an interview with Reuters TV, the Serbian president ruled that the Franco-German initiative was already bearing fruit. "No one can guarantee what will happen at the end of this process, but this is the first relatively optimistic news," he said. "I don't care if it happens in a month or in two years," he said of a possible peace agreement.

The dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, which committed in 2013 to carry out a process under the aegis of the European Union to try to resolve their dispute, had been interrupted since November 2018 and the decision of the Kosovar government to double customs duties on Serbian-made import products.

"This summit followed many Franco-German steps to obtain in the first place the solution of the crisis related to the taxes which had produced an interruption of this dialogue", explained a diplomatic source in Paris. "It was important to demonstrate that France and Germany had the capacity to train partners who are in a conflict situation, but also to demonstrate that there was European legitimacy in this matter."

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