Serbia and Kosovo's hopes of joining EU at risk after talks breakdown again

Josep Borrell warns that the lack of progress could hurt their hopes of joining the bloc.

Transcript

00:00 It's back to the drawing board for the EU's top diplomat Joseph Bure

00:03 after another attempt to normalise relations between Serbia and Kosovo failed on Thursday.

00:09 While Pristina and Belgrade say they both want to join the EU,

00:12 Serbia and its former province of Kosovo are still at odds.

00:15 Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 1998,

00:19 a move Belgrade still refuses to recognise.

00:21 But Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti says he won't work towards an agreement struck in February

00:27 until Serbia recognises its country's independence.

00:30 Some steps were taken by Kosovo and we welcome them, some, but they failed.

00:37 They fell very short of meeting the request made for a full de-escalation.

00:44 Today we again urge both parties to take immediate action in the north of Kosovo

00:51 to de-escalate the situation, to avoid any further de-stabilisation

00:57 and to enable new early local elections to take place immediately.

01:03 Tensions have been running high between the two sides

01:05 since the ethnic Serb population in northern Kosovo boycotted municipal elections in April.

01:10 But if talks continue to fail, Bure has warned that Serbia and Kosovo are heading towards a dead end

01:15 and could sabotage their hopes of joining the bloc.

01:18 (whooshing)