EU warns of escalation as Serbia, Kosovo fail to resolve car plates dispute

We cannot turn ourselves into state leaders that are dealing only with car plates and are not talking how to normalize their relations," he told reporters in Brussels. The dispute over licence plates has stoked tensions for almost two years between Serbia and its former breakaway province, which declared independence in 2008 and is home to a Serb minority in the north backed by Belgrade.

The European Union on Monday warned of "escalation and violence" after Kosovo and Serbia failed to agree in emergency talks on a solution to their long-running dispute over car licence plates used by the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo. "After many hours of discussion ... the two parties did not agree to a solution today," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement to the media.

"I think that there is an important responsibility on the sides of both leaders for the failure of the talks today and for any escalation and violence that might occur on the ground in the following days." Kosovo has attempted this year to require its Serb minority to change their old car plates that date before 1999 when Kosovo was still part of Serbia.

This move has been met with strong and sometimes violent resistance by Serbs living in the northern part of the country, but Kosovo has said it will start issuing fines from Tuesday. Borrell said that the EU put forward a proposal that could have avoided a further ratcheting up of tensions, which was accepted by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic but not by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

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. "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 told reporters after the meeting.

Kurti, for his part, said he was ready to hold further meetings to normalise 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 how to normalize their relations," he told reporters in Brussels.

The dispute over licence plates has stoked tensions for almost two years between Serbia and its former breakaway province, which declared independence in 2008 and is home to a Serb minority in the north backed by Belgrade. Around 50,000 ethnic Serbs who live there refuse to recognise Pristina's authority and still consider themselves a part of Serbia.

Hundreds of police officers, judges, prosecutors, and other state workers from the Serb minority quit their jobs earlier this month after the government in Pristina ruled that local Serbs must finally replace car plates issued by Serbia's unrecognised authorities in Kosovo, with Kosovo state ones. Borrell called on Kosovo to immediately suspend further steps related to the re-registation of vehicles in north Kosovo, and on Serbia to suspend issuing new number plates, allowing both parties "space and time" to find a resolution. (Additional reporting by Bart Meijer; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Josie Kao)