Kosovo and Serbia fail to reach agreement on use of vehicle plates

English

Gazeta Express

21/04/2022 18:14

Kosovo and Serbia have failed to reach an agreement on use of vehicle plates during negotiations in Brussels facilitated by the EU. Kosovo chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, confirmed that he held Thursday a trilateral meeting with his Serbian counterpart Petar Petkovic facilitated by the EU Special Representative for Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, but no agreement has been signed. The deadline for reaching a deal expires today, Gazeta Express reports.  

Bislimi, who is Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, told media in Brussels that Serbian side has not presented any modality during the working groups and has not accepted that the mandate for finding a solution within a 30-day deadline to be transferred at the chief negotiators level, Gazeta Express reports.

According to Bislimi, Serbian side has not respected the provisional deal reached in September 2021 to find a permanent solution on use of a vehicle plates when entering each-others territory. According to the provisional deal drivers who entered Kosovo and Serbia had to cover the state emblems with white stickers. The chief negotiator said that Kosovo has decided one of the modalities which they found acceptable, adding however that Serbian side has refused to set a modality. “Subsequently, finding a solution today deemed impossible. Again, at the request of EUSR Lajcak we have offered an additional concession, that chief negotiators to be mandated to find an acceptable solution within a 30-days deadline, but Serbian side has rejected the proposal,” Bislimi told media in Brussels.

Lajcak in a tweet earlier on Thursday confirmed the meeting with Kosovo and Sebria chief negotiators in Brussels. “Today’s Chief negotiators’ meeting between Kosovo and Serbia is well under way. We have a full agenda of current issues, including licence plates, implementation of past Dialogue agreements and preparing the ground for a next High-level meeting,” Lajcak said.

On 30 September 2021 Kosovo and Serbia agreed to a temporary deal on use of vehicle plates, under condition that a final permanent solution should be found within six months. Under the provisional deal, Kosovo and Serbia agreed that vehicles of both countries, when entering territory of each other to cover their state symbols in vehicle plates with white stickers. The provisional agreement was reached after days of protests in northern part of Kosovo when local Serbs blocked roads, to oppose the Kosovo Government decision on reciprocity of vehicle plates. The reciprocity meant Kosovo introducing probation plates for vehicles entering from Serbia, a measure which was applied by Serbian authorities at the border. /GazetaExpress/