Kosovo postpones controversial license plate fine for another 48 hours

NOS News•Today, 4:01 p.m

Kosovo will not fine Serbian residents who do not exchange their Serbian number plates for Kosovo ones within the next two days. As of today, fines were to be issued by the police, but Prime Minister Kurti accepted a proposal from the United States last night to delay that for a while.

Courtie announced his decision on Twitter last night:

Kosovo declared its independence in 2008 and introduced its own number plates, among other things. Neighboring Serbia does not recognize the independence of the former Serbian province. Ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo still walk around with a Serbian license plate. This has long led to tensions in the region.

For example, hundreds of police officers, prosecutors and other employees belonging to Kosovo’s Serb minority have laid off their jobs. They did this in protest of the government’s plans in Pristina to oblige Kosovar Serbs to also change their number plates to Kosovo ones.

Borrell attacks Kosovo

The prime minister said Kosovo wants to use the next two days to work with the United States and the European Union to find a solution. Yesterday, during an hours-long meeting in Brussels, this was not yet possible.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said after the negotiations that both sides were responsible for the failure to reach an agreement on the issue.

“For the sake of transparency, I must say that we made a proposal that could have prevented this precarious situation and that Serbian President Vucic agreed today, but unfortunately Prime Minister Kurti did not,” Borrell said.

The EU External Coordinator also said that he would inform EU member states of not respecting the international obligations of both parties. “This is especially true of Kosovo,” he added.

NOS reporter David Jan Godfroid:

Borrell has now put the ball precisely in Kosovo and that doesn’t happen often. This is a new trend.

Kurti has now also indicated that he wants to find a solution in these 48 hours. This is not easy, because both Serbia and Kosovo say the other is not adhering to the agreements reached in Brussels in 2013.

It is now also about dialogue to reach a practical relationship in order to take a step towards EU membership. This has been talked about for years.

Relations between Brussels and Pristina are not as strong as the relationship between the Americans and the Kosovo government. However, there is pressure also on the countries of the European Union. Neighboring countries do not want conflict in their region and the European Union does not want to bring them into the fold either. So Serbia and Kosovo will have to find ways to interact. Even without Serbia recognizing Kosovo.

Joining the European Union is an important reason for both Serbia and Kosovo to solve the problem, which is also evident from Borrell’s words.

The EU’s foreign affairs chief said he had made it clear to the two leaders that if they wished to join the union, they would be expected to act accordingly.