Talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Brussels have failed to ease the tense situation in the north of Kosovo linked to a phaseout of Serbian license plates and other documents, fueling concerns the row may turn violent.
Video from the European Union's broadcaster EBS on November 21 showed the two men sitting across from each other at tables while the bloc's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, and Miroslav Lajcak, the EU special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues, were seated at tables off to the side.
SEE ALSO: Graffiti And Resistance As Kosovo Readies Fines For Old Serbian License PlatesBut any hopes of success appeared to be dashed quickly after several hours of discussions.
"After many hours of discussion from eight o'clock this morning, the two parties did not agree to a solution today," Borrell said in a statement after the talks.
"For the sake of transparency, we submitted a proposal that could avoid this dangerous situation. President Vucic accepted it, but unfortunately Prime Minister Kurti did not," he added.
Borrell's sentiments were echoed by Vucic, who told reporters: "For reasons that are unclear to me, we have failed to reach absolutely any agreement," Vucic said.
Kurti said the proposal called for Kosovo not to start issuing fines to people whose cars had license plates issued by Serbia and for Belgrade not to issue new license plates for Kosovo Serbs.
He said any proposal that was not accompanied by an agreement "to urgently commit to a final agreement for the complete normalization of relations" was unacceptable.
Kurti said he was ready to hold further meetings to normalize relations between Belgrade and Pristina, not just to deal with one issue.
"We cannot be irresponsible and not treat the actual issues.... We cannot turn ourselves into state leaders that are dealing only with car plates and are not talking about how to normalize their relations," he told reporters in Brussels.
Borrell said he would inform the EU member states of the two countries' "lack of respect for their international legal obligations" and warned that, given their commitment to joining the bloc, they should act accordingly.
Vucic told reporters after the meeting that the Serbian side “was completely constructive and we were accepting the texts that were changed 10 times, but the Albanian side did not want to accept anything, not for a second, they would always add something that was clearly not possible."
Vucic added that he would meet Kosovo Serbs late on November 21 to ask them to remain calm.
"We received the latest intelligence a little while ago, the situation is very difficult and it is on the verge of conflict," Vucic told reporters. "We will do everything to preserve peace."
He also said that Serbia would stop issuing and renewing its own car number plates for Northern Kosovo.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg expressed disappointment that Serbia and Kosovo did not reach an agreement on the license plate matter.
"Now is the time for responsibility & pragmatic solutions. Escalation must be avoided," he said on Twitter, adding that KFOR, the NATO mission in Kosovo, remains vigilant.
Tensions between the two countries have heightened in recent weeks with Kosovo's Serb minority angry over a decision by the government of Kosovo to phase out old vehicle license plates and documents issued by Serbia for the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska in Kosovo.
The plan envisages cars with Serb license plates to be reregistered by April 21. Serbia objects, insisting the license plates, which date to the 1990s when Kosovo was a part of Serbia, are neutral to the status of Kosovo.
Kosovar authorities started the implementation of the license-plate conversion plan on November 1, despite calls from the international community to postpone it.
During the first phase, Kosovo authorities issued warnings to people driving the vehicles with Serbian plates. They said on November 20 that violators will face a fine of up to 150 euros beginning November 22.
The European Union has urged Kosovo to allow more time for the phaseout. The United States and NATO have also cautioned Kosovo against unilateral actions that could lead to the further escalation of tensions.
Kosovo and Serbia fought a bloody war in the late 1990s, with Kosovo eventually declaring independence from Serbia in 2008.
Belgrade -- as well as Russia, China, and five EU member states -- has not recognized its former province's independence and accuses Pristina of suppressing the rights of minority Serbs, who account for 5 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, which is 90 percent Albanian.