The European Commission and the bloc's diplomatic service have submitted a proposal to the European Council to make commitments by Serbia last year related to neighboring Kosovo part of Belgrade's formal negotiating framework for entry to the European Union, RFE/RL's Balkan Service has learned.
The proposal by the EU's executive arm and the EEAS to the European Council, where leaders of the respective member states set the bloc's political agenda, was delivered on February 2, according to a commission spokesperson.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's declaration of sovereignty from 2008, which followed a bloody conflict and UN intervention to help administer the former Serbian province.
Any progress on normalizing Serbian-Kosovar relations has proven difficult as the two Balkan neighbors fall short of commitments, including some made more than a decade ago.
The biggest sticking points have been recognition of Kosovo's sovereignty and the groundwork by Pristina for an association of Serb municipalities that could more adequately represent predominantly ethnic Serb areas in Kosovo.
Early last year near Lake Ohrid, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti each verbally agreed to sets of commitments, followed by a plan for implementation.
But it has mostly stalled, and violent incidents last year in northern Kosovo undermined trust and fueled fears of a dangerous escalation of conflict in a historically vulnerable region.
The European Council in December had asked the European Commission and EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell to prepare by the end of January the insertion of the Ohrid commitments into Chapter 35 of Serbia's framework for reforms.
The European Union formally opened accession negotiations with Serbia in 2014, soon after the so-called Brussels agreement with its road map toward normalized relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
Sources close to the process told RFE/RL's Balkan Service that the office of the European commissioner for enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, has been a brake on inclusion of the obligation as an amendment to Chapter 35 of Serbia's acquis framework for required reforms.
That was among the first of Serbia's reform chapters to be opened, in December 2015.
The same sources said the commission should have begun working on the proposal for amending Chapter 35 to include the new commitments immediately after Ohrid.
Varhelyi, a Hungarian, is regarded as a close associate of that country's prime minister, Viktor Orban, who is among the EU's most vociferous critics.
Brussels has consistently underscored to both Belgrade and Pristina that their normalized relations are essential to progress on accession.
A handful of EU member states do not formally acknowledge Kosovo's independence, and neither do Russia or China.
Around 110 countries, including the United States, recognize Kosovo.