After two weeks, the border crossings in the north of Kosovo, Jarinje and Brnjak, can be crossed by car as of Monday (October 4), with the mandatory pasting of state symbols on license plates issued by the authorities of Kosovo and Serbia.
The measure of pasting over state symbols will also be applied at all other border crossings based on the temporary solution that the two sides reached on September 30 in Brussels with the aim of de-escalating the situation in the north of Kosovo.
The majority Serbian population lives in the municipalities in the north of Kosovo, which blocked Jarinje and Brnjak for 13 days due to the decision of the Government of Kosovo to implement reciprocal measures with Serbia regarding license plates from September 20.
Citizens of Kosovo, who have RKS plates, have been able to enter Serbia for the last ten years only with trial plates.
Kosovo and Serbia are technically ready to implement the agreement
The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo and the head of the Kosovo delegation for dialogue with Serbia, Besnik Bisljimi, told Radio Free Europe (RSE) on October 1 that Kosovo has 300.000 packs of stickers, and that each pack contains four stickers, which will be covered with national symbols. from the front and back of the plates.
Also, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija of the Government of Serbia announced that everything is ready for the implementation of the agreement regarding the stickers, that is, they will be available to citizens at all crossings.
New - old deal
The fact that the state symbols on license plates should be pasted over was also foreseen by the Brussels Agreement on Freedom of Movement from 2016, that is, by the agreement regarding the finalization of the implementation of the Agreement on Freedom of Movement from 2011.
Then Kosovo and Serbia agreed to "cover the relevant parts of the license plates with two white stickers".
This agreement was reached in September and the "sticker regime" was supposed to come into force in mid-November. However, this part of the agreement on freedom of movement was never implemented on the ground, because Kosovo had "administrative problems".
What else is written in the new agreement?
The first part of the agreement on the de-escalation of the situation in the north of Kosovo was implemented on Saturday (October 2), when the Kosovo Serbs removed the barricades from the roads leading to the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings, after which the Special Unit of the Kosovo Police withdrew from those crossings.
In addition to the Kosovo border police, which normally manages the crossings, there are now also members of the NATO military mission in Kosovo - KFOR - in the north.
It is planned that KFOR will be present at the crossing of Jarinje and Brnjak for two weeks in order to ensure a safe environment and freedom of movement.
In the meantime, the working group, which will be headed by a representative of the European Union, will work on finding a final solution regarding license plates. This working group will hold its first meeting on October 21 in Brussels and must find a final solution within six months.
Why was a temporary solution necessary?
The agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on the de-escalation of the situation in the north of Kosovo and the temporary solution regarding license plates was reached after tensions between the two sides rose.
On September 20, Kosovo Serbs set up barricades on the roads leading to the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings, so it was only possible to cross the crossings on foot.
That was their reaction to the decision of the Government of Kosovo to introduce reciprocal measures regarding license plates to Serbia, that is, all owners of cars with Serbian plates had to take test plates.
This measure coincided with emphasizing the validity of the status-neutral KS (Kosovo) plates.
Namely, the technical agreement on freedom of movement between Kosovo and Serbia from 2011 was finalized in Brussels on September 14, 2016, when Kosovo agreed to extend the validity of status-neutral license plates for another five years.
The five-year term expired on September 15, 2021.
Also, when the reciprocal measures were introduced, the Kosovo authorities announced that all license plates issued by the Serbian authorities for cities in Kosovo would be confiscated.
These plates, mostly KM (Kosovska Mitrovica), are used only in the north of Kosovo and they are illegal for Kosovo because they were abolished in the municipalities south of the Ibar back in 2011 based on the Brussels Agreement.
According to the last agreement from Brussels of September 30 this year, the state symbols on KM plates will also be covered with stickers in the next six months, until a permanent solution is found.
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