The United States intends that the decision of the Government of Kosovo to re-register cars with Serbian license plates in RKS – Republic of Kosovo – be implemented peacefully, and not contribute to the increase of tensions.
This is what a spokesperson of the American Embassy in Pristina said, in an answer to Radio Free Europe.
Among other things, the Embassy has said that the USA, together with its European partners, believe that the decision of the Government of Kosovo is in accordance with the Brussels agreements, and in principle, they have no objections to it.
“However, we have requested, together with our international partners, a ten-month postponement for the implementation of the decision”, said the Embassy’s response.
The deadline for re-registration of cars in RKS started on September 1 and ends on October 31.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said on October 25 that Kosovo takes seriously the suggestions of international allies regarding the postponement of the implementation of the decision on license plates.
“Besides that we want order and law to be respected, we are also careful not to endanger peace and security. Therefore, even when our international partners, allies, friends give us suggestions, we take them very seriously and analyze them carefully”, stated Kurti.
Until now, the Government of Kosovo has said that the deadline has already been postponed once, and that from November 1, cars with license plates issued by Serbia will no longer be able to circulate.
These license plates are considered illegal by the authorities in Kosovo, but until now they have been tolerated in the north of Kosovo.
Vučić meets on Thursday with the Serbian List and convenes the Security Council
Regarding license plates, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has set a meeting for October 27 with the representatives of the Serbian List, the main party of the Serbs in Kosovo.
As Vucic’s cabinet has announced, the meeting will be held at 09:00.
After the meeting with the Kosovo Serbs, a meeting of the National Security Council of Serbia, a body that gathers representatives of the military and security sector, is expected to be held at 10:00.
This meeting was called after Lista Serbe requested to meet with Vucic due to the issue of re-registration of license plates in Kosovo.
According to this party, on November 1, Kosovo is planning “to confiscate the properties of our citizens and cars with Serbian license plates”.
Tensions around license plates
Serbian license plates are considered illegal by the authorities in Kosovo, but until now they have been tolerated in the north of Kosovo.
On July 31 and August 1, local Serbs in the north of Kosovo have set up barricades as a sign of dissatisfaction with the decision of the Government of Kosovo to implement two decisions: for car plates and Serbian documents.
The decision to implement these two decisions has been postponed to September 1, also at the request of international mechanisms.
In the meantime, an agreement has been reached on the entry/exit documents.
Kosovo and Serbia have started negotiations for the normalization of relations in 2011, with the mediation of the European Union.
The negotiation process is expected to end with legally binding agreements.
Although Kosovo declares that this agreement should include mutual recognition, Serbia does not accept, insisting on a “compromise solution”.
