The Serbian and Spanish delegations walked out of a conference on common European foreign, defence and security policies because the flag of Kosovo was displayed alongside the flags of other participating nations, the FoNet news agency reported on Thursday.

A Serbian parliament press release said that the delegations walked out because “the temporary institutions in Pristina were represented with a flag and the name Kosovo without an asterisk. The asterisk (Kosovo*) is used under an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina with an accompanying footnote that says: this designation (the name Kosovo) is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UN Security Council resolution 1244 and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

It added that the Austrian parliament, as organizer of the gathering, did not want to meet the request from the two delegations to represent the delegation from Pristina in line with the agreement on regional representation.

“The organizer did not respect the status of the conference which says that only candidates for EU membership or NATO member states can have the status of observer at the conference,” the press release said.

Austria is the current holder of the rotating European Union Council Presidency.