Negotiations with Kosovo premier ended unsuccessfully: Serbian president

BELGRADE, Serbia

Negotiations with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Brussels ended unsuccessfully Tuesday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.

Vucic's remarks came after talks under a EU-led dialogue in Brussels.

"We had talks and I think they ended unsuccessfully in terms of finding a clear path toward the normalization of relations,” he said. “We all have our own proposals, but in the end, we as Serbia, accepted the compromise proposal of the European Union. Kurti did not want to accept it and the meeting ended.”

Vucic said Serbia is not running from its obligations.

"It's logical that everyone is fighting for their own. It is clear that Kurti is avoiding forming a community of Serbian municipalities ... And we accepted such a proposal of theirs, despite the fact that it is not at all easy for us, and Kurti refused," he said.

Kurti said the meeting did not produce results because of Serbia's conditions.

"When I asked to see the proposal that Serbia made because I was told that it existed, the mediators were not able to pass it. Only after the end of the meeting they gave me a two-page document in English and Cyrillic, which is an old document of at least six months. It was a document stipulating to Serbia that the Union of Municipalities with a Serbian majority must be formed once and in the end we can move on to a basic agreement," he said.

The EU on Wednesday urged the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to “take responsibility” and implement a EU-brokered deal to normalize relations.

The agreement implies, among other points, the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by Serbia, which high-ranking Serbian officials ruled out shortly thereafter.

Tensions rose in so high May in northern Kosovo following municipal elections in ethnic Serb-dominated areas that NATO deployed 700 more troops in the peacekeeping KFOR mission after 93 of its soldiers were injured.

Launched in 2011, the EU-led Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue aims to normalize relations between the two Balkan neighbors and find a mutually agreeable solution to disputes within the framework of a legally binding agreement.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, with most UN member states, including the US, UK, France, Germany and Türkiye, recognizing it as an autonomous country.

Serbia, however, still considers Kosovo its territory.