EU envoy urges Kosovo and Serbia to step up normalization efforts before the bloc’s June elections

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The European Union’s envoy for the Western Balkans has urged Kosovo and Serbia to push ahead with faltering normalization talks before elections for the European Parliament in June. Miroslav Lajcak met with Kosovo’s top leaders in the capital Pristina for three hours on Tuesday after visiting Belgrade a day earlier. EU-facilitated normalization talks have failed to make progress, especially following a shootout last September between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and ratcheted up tensions in the region. Serbia doesn’t recognize the independence of its former province.