"Ten important days until decision on start date"

BELGRADE -- The next ten days will be crucial for the decision on when to give Serbia the start date for the accession talks with the EU, according to Tanjug.

The news agency further reported on Wednesday that there will be a series of meetings scheduled before the European Council meeting on June 28, "any of which could be decisive for the outcome."

Serbia's Prime Minister Ivica Dačić and Kosovo's Prime Minister Hasim Thaci will go to Brussels on Thursday, following a series of very intensive meetings on technical issues between the Belgrade and Pristina working groups.

They will meet with EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and sum up the efforts so far regarding the implementation of the agreement on the normalization of relations initialled in Brussels on April 19.

It will pose an opportunity to determine exactly how far the process has gone and what should be done to fully implement the agreement, Tanjug learned at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels.

Even with the long and very tough talks between the working groups, many of the issues concerning the creation of the association of Serb municipalities have remained unresolved, so they will be decided by the prime ministers at the meeting with Ashton.

Expert teams were still discussing on Wednesday the issues regarding the judiciary, police, power supply for northern Kosovo and local elections in the Serb municipalities set for October.

On Friday, Ashton and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule will inform by letter the EU members about the progress regarding the agreement and Serbia's reforms.

Also on Friday, the heads of missions of EU member countries in Brussels will hold a meeting and draft a decision on the start date based on the letter, which will then be sent to all the foreign ministers.

The foreign ministers of EU members will discuss the draft on the second day of their meeting in Luxembourg, which starts on June 24, but the heads of state and prime ministers will have the final word.

The German parliament will decide on Wednesday and Thursday, in the foreign policy committee and at a plenary session, whether to recommend that Chancellor Angela Merkel should vote in favour of granting Serbia a start date for the accession talks.

The heads of state and prime ministers of the EU members will decide unanimously at the Brussels summit on June 28 whether or not to grant the start date, ending months of suspense surrounding the issue.