Serbia, Kosovo Reach Judicial Deal In Brussels

Serbia and Kosovo have reached an agreement to establish an ethnically mixed court in the northern Mitrovica region during EU-brokered talks in Brussels.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced the agreement early on February 10 after long negotiations with Kosovar Prime Minister Isa Mustafi and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

The court will serve all of Mitrovica, the region where most of Kosovo's small ethnic Serb population lives.

It will consist of 18 prosecutors equally divided between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs and will have 14 ethnic Albanian judges and 11 ethnic Serbs.

It is unclear if the judges and prosecutors will only work on cases involving people of their own ethnic group.

The judicial agreement closes a hotly disputed issue in talks between Serbia and the predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.

Serbia does not recognize the independence of Kosovo.

With reporting by dpa