BRUSSELS — A senior European Union official has held an urgent meeting with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo and encouraged them to work harder to normalize their relations following a recent spike in tensions.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called on them to put aside their differences during meetings and a dinner in Brussels, according to a statement from her office issued late Tuesday.
"I underlined that progress in the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia is essential: for Kosovo and Serbia, for the European Union itself, and the Western Balkans region as a whole," Mogherini said.
Mogherini described the meeting as "open and very constructive" and said they discussed "the developments over the past days, agreed to leave the tensions behind and to focus on the work ahead."
Her meeting was with Prime Ministers Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and Isa Mustafa of Kosovo, and Presidents Tomislav Nikolic of Serbia and Hashim Thaci of Kosovo.
Tensions starting building in December when the Serb minority erected a wall at a bridge in Mitrovica, saying it was a barrier to prevent landslides in the ethnically-divided northern town. But ethnic Albanians and others said it was erected to keep them out.
The friction increased in early January with the detention of Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovo prime minister, and days later when a Serbian train with signs reading "Kosovo is Serbia" was turned back from the border with Kosovo.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but that hasn't been recognized by Belgrade.
Serbia, backed by Russia, has sought to maintain influence in Kosovo, especially in the north where most of the country's Serb minority lives. NATO-led troops have controlled Kosovo's territory since a three-month air war in 1999 to stop a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.
For years, Brussels has been facilitating a Serbia-Kosovo dialogue to normalize their ties, coping with confrontational stands in both countries where some political groupings have called to end it.
Mogherini said both "agreed to take the dialogue forward in a spirit of respect, cooperation and mutual understanding" intensifying it over the next days with a series of high-level rounds.
