Kosovo and Serbia do not reach an agreement on the use of vehicle license plates
Kosovo and Serbia do not reach an agreement on the use of vehicle license plates
Kosovo and Serbia have failed to reach an agreement on the use of vehicle plates during EU-facilitated negotiations in Brussels. Kosovo’s chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, confirmed that he held a tripartite meeting with his Serbian counterpart Petar Petkovic on Thursday, assisted by the EU’s Special Representative for Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, but no agreement was signed. The deadline for reaching an agreement expires today, reports Gazeta Express.
Bislimi, who is the deputy prime minister of Kosovo, told the media in Brussels that the Serbian side did not present any modality during the working groups and did not accept that the mandate to find a solution within the 30-day period be transferred to the chief negotiators. level, reports Gazeta Express.
According to Bislim, the Serbian side has not respected the temporary agreement reached in September 2021 to find a permanent solution for the use of vehicle license plates when entering each other’s territory. Under the interim agreement, drivers entering Kosovo and Serbia had to cover their state emblems with white stickers. The chief negotiator said that Kosovo has established one of the modalities that they consider acceptable, adding however that the Serbian side has refused to establish a modality. “After that, finding a solution today was considered impossible. Again, at the request of EUSR Lajcak, we have offered an additional concession, so that the chief negotiators are mandated to find an acceptable solution within a 30-day period, but the Serbian side has rejected the proposal,” Bislimi told the media in Brussels.
Lajcak in a post on Twitter earlier on Thursday confirmed the meeting with the chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels. “Today’s meeting of chief negotiators between Kosovo and Serbia is progressing well. We have a full agenda of current issues, including license plates, implementation of past Dialogue agreements and preparing the ground for a future high-level meeting,” said Lajcak.
On September 30, 2021, Kosovo and Serbia agreed on a temporary agreement on the use of vehicle number plates, with the condition that a final permanent solution must be found within six months. According to the interim agreement, Kosovo and Serbia agreed that the vehicles of both countries, when entering each other’s territory, cover their state symbols on the license plates of the vehicles with white stickers. The interim agreement was reached after days of protests in the northern part of Kosovo when local Serbs blocked roads to oppose the Kosovo Government’s decision to reciprocate license plates. Reciprocity means that Kosovo will place trial plates for vehicles entering from Serbia, a measure which has been applied by the Serbian authorities at the border. /Express newspaper/