The Kosovo Police of the region north forwarded a request to Pristina to extend the deadline for re-registration from KM to RKS plates.
The deputy police commander of this region, Veton Elshani, told KoSSev that they sent the request to the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Minister Xhelal Svecla.
„This is also a request from citizens, they’ve been asking us when and how they can register,“ he explained.
He added that citizens with KM plates are not being issued fines by the KP due to the impossibility to re-register to RKS plates.
„We requested that registration be allowed for one month and that during that period we allow citizens to register their vehicles. For now, citizens cannot do that, and that is why we are not issuing fines,“ he told us.
The issue of license plates issued by the Republic of Serbia with markings of towns in Kosovo (KM, ĐA, PR, PE, PZ, GL and UR), which Pristina considers illegal, came to the fore in September 2021, after the end of the second five-year extension of the part of the Brussels Agreement on freedom of movement, regarding KS plates. This resulted in a 13-day crisis at the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings.
The Kosovo government then implemented reciprocity, introducing temporary plates for cars with Serbian registrations.
However, they were unable to implement this decision, because the local Serbs set up barricades at the crossings, at the same time as members of the Special Kosovo Police were stationed near them.
The crisis ended with a temporary agreement on the use of the sticker regime for license plates, which is still applied to both Serbian license plates in Kosovo and Kosovo license plates in Serbia.
Nevertheless, tensions continued at the end of July 2022, on the eve of the implementation of the new decision of the Kosovo government on (re)registration, that is, the replacement of Serbian license plates with markings of towns in Kosovo with RKS plates.
In order to reduce tensions, the international community managed to intervene on two occasions in postponing these decisions.
Three days before the new deadline (October 31), the Kosovo government came out with a new decision on (re)registration – choosing to implement it in stages. The plan was that their decision to remove Serbian license plates would be applied until April 21, 2023 – starting with warnings, fines, temporary plates, and all the way to complete removal. At that time, the benefits of taking RKS were available until March 31.
As the second phase of the implementation of the decision, related to issuing fines to drivers who did not have RKS license plates approached, Serb officers left the Kosovo Police in the north at the beginning of November, refusing to punish their fellow citizens.
Due to a new rise in tensions, the international community invited Kosovo and Serbian leaders to Brussels. A new agreement was reached on November 23, after the start of implementation of the second phase of the decision.
Pristina committed itself not to apply the decision on (re)registration in stages, and Belgrade not to issue new license plates with Serbian markings of towns in Kosovo.
On December 6, Belgrade issued a decree of the Government of Serbia on special conditions for the validity of license plates with Serbian markings of towns in Kosovo, confirming that the Serbian MIA will officially cease issuing new license plates with markings of towns in Kosovo.
The decree, however, also stated that new registration stickers will not be issued, but that the validity of the old ones will be extended. According to that decree, citizens could thus carry out a technical inspection and obtain insurance and continue operating their vehicles.
Citizens were confused as to in which territory such vehicles could be used, as the decree failed to specify that detail, as well as over the lack of information on whether they would be able to pass through administrative crossings and operate their vehicles on the territory of Kosovo and in the countries of the region.
Although the Government of Serbia announced that vehicles with such plates would be able to move „as before“, on the ground, however, it turned out that their concern was justified.
The owners of vehicles whose Serbian registration expired after the agreement of November 23, at the crossings leading to Serbia proper, received a warning from the Kosovo officials – that they would not be able to return because the Kosovo police do not accept the technical inspection and the insurance policy – as valid documentation for crossing the integrated crossing.
„The Serbian government can play around with its decisions, but vehicles with ‘illegal’ license plates are not allowed to enter Kosovo“ – reads one of the messages from Pristina officials, with the statement that a car driven in Kosovo without a valid registration would be confiscated, and the driver fined 150 Euros.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
