Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said he believes the normalisation of relations with Serbia, including recognition, will be complete within the next two years, while the visa liberalisation decision faces opposition and requests for clarification.
During an interview with APA, Kurti said that he would not allow the formation of the Association of Serb Municipalities in the country and that the agreement signed to set it up was signed by the previous government, not him.
“Mutual recognition should be at the heart of the agreement. I took power last year; it was my predecessors who signed this agreement with the same people who are still in power in Serbia today. Why didn’t they implement it, then? Our constitution does not accept an ethnic association. Its essence is multi-ethnicity,” he said.
As for the deputies of the Serbian List who resigned from parliament in protest over the rollout of changes to the car licensing regime, he said they would be replaced via an election. In addition, police that resigned will be replaced as “order and security must be guaranteed for all those who live in the four municipalities in the north.”
Tensions recently increased in Kosovo as Pristina moved ahead with plans to ensure all Kosovo citizens use license plates issued by the country’s institutions. The decision would impact 10,000 ethnic Serbs in the north who fail to recognise Kosovo’s sovereignty and continue to use Yugoslav-era plates.
Kurti postponed the implementation on several occasions, and now the measures will be introduced gradually, with fines applicable from 21 November and the total ban coming into force from mid-April.
Talks have been taking place over the last week between essential stakeholders, including a recent meeting in Brussels. Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi said no license plate solution has been found so far.
“There are elements that we have discussed about the possibility of exiting the crisis, but there is no agreement,” he said after meeting the EU’s Special Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak.
Meanwhile, Kosovo continues to pin hopes on visa liberalisation, but at least two countries have opposed a timely decision. Following the Czech European Council Presidency’s proposal to liberate, the deadline for ‘silent’ opposition expired on 16 November.
Sources told Euronews Albania that two countries voiced opposition, one of which was Spain, while others asked for further clarifications.
The proposal of the Czech Republic, the country that currently leads the EU Presidency, was that the entry into force of visa liberalisation for Kosovo should be linked to the functioning of the ETIAS travel system, as requested by France, but at the same time the date of the decision’s enforcement should also be set: “not later than 1 December 2023.”
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
Source: euractiv.com
