EU-sponsored talks finally produced a hard-won normalisation accord Friday between Serbia and breakaway Kosovo which was hailed in Brussels as a key step away from a violent past and towards closer ties with the EU. Below are key dates since the predominantly ethnic-Albanian province declared independence in 2008.

The European Union made a final push Wednesday to wrest a 2012 Serbia-Kosovo deal to normalise ties between the fractious Balkans neighbours and turn a page on the continent's last trouble-spot. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called surprise talks in Brussels with the premiers of Serbia and Kosovo, Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaci, just two weeks after an EU-brokered dialogue broke down despite two years of efforts.

Crunch talks aimed at ending the ethnic partition of Serbia's former Kosovo province broke up without result on Wednesday, in a major setback for Serbia's hopes of starting European Union membership negotiations this year. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has been mediating months of talks between Serbia and Kosovo, said the gap between the two sides was "very narrow, but deep" after a marathon 12-hour session. Ashton said the Brussels meeting, the eighth between the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo, was the last time all sides would meet formally with EU media

Serbia and Kosovo failed Wednesday to find common ground on how to defuse longstanding tensions at marathon EU-sponsored talks, but the door appeared still open for further discussions, officials said. The latest round of talks in Brussels -- the eighth and last, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said afterwards -- was aimed at normalising relations between Serbia and breakaway Kosovo, paving the way to eventual EU membership. But after more than 12 hours of talks, the two sides left without striking any deal.