Kosovo

President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, addressed the nation tonight, for the first time since the beginning of the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija .

NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mircea Geoană, spoke with the European Union's special representative for Belgrade - Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajčak.

The EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, has said armed persons were present in Serb-majority northern Kosovo in late July, when locals erected barricades to block two border crossing points, protesting the Kosovo government’s “reciprocity measures” against Serbia on the issue of car license plates and IDs. 

Officials in Belgrade and Pristina confirmed the existence of a new German-French proposal for a deal on Kosovo’s final status, but disagreed about what the document actually says.

A deputy commander of NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo says the alliance is "ready to act" and even prepared to increase troop numbers if trouble erupts amid a vehicle-licensing standoff between Kosovo and Serbia.

Three political blocs appeared to have sealed a deal to form a new government just before Monday’s midnight deadline, but one party withheld its signature.

An agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, mediated over the weekend by the European Union and the U.S., settled a dispute over identity documents, but tensions over the matter, as well as license plates for ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo, are a reminder of the fragile stability in the region.

EU and US envoys Miroslav Lajcak and Gabriel Escobar landed in Pristina on Wednesday in an attempt to bridge differences between Kosovo and Serbia ahead of September 1, when the Kosovo authorities intend to bring in regulations on vehicle licence plates and ID documents for border crossing which Serbs strongly oppose.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on August 21 that minority Serbs working in Kosovo institutions will leave their jobs unless a deal is reached to end their "persecution."

NATO will increase its peacekeeping force in Kosovo if there is an escalation of tensions with neighbouring Serbia, the alliance’s chief said on Wednesday (17 August), on the eve of EU-facilitated talks between the estranged western Balkan neighbours.