The Kosovo government decided to abolish the sticker regime for Serbian license plates. The decision came into force today. Four days earlier, the government of Serbia made the same move for RKS plates.
The decision was made at the session of the Kosovo government, which was held online.
„The abolishment of this regime is an act of good neighborly relations and comes after full recognition of the license plates of the Republic of Kosovo by Serbia,“ stated the Kosovo government.
They specified that the decision enters into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette.
Four days before the Kosovo government made this decision for Serbian license plates, the government of Serbia adopted the same decision for cars with RKS license plates.
The head of the Kosovo Office, Petar Petković, informed the public at a press conference that the government of Serbia had made a decision allowing the free movement of vehicles with RKS plates, on the same day the decision was made, December 25, without specifying that this actually meant that Serbia was abolishing stickers for RKS plates, as it later turned out. He underscored that this does not mean that Serbia has recognized Kosovo’s independence.
The government of Serbia made this benefit available to the owners of Kosovo license plates immediately after the Serbian license plates with markings of towns in Kosovo practically disappeared from the traffic in the north of Kosovo.
After messages that „there is no surrender – KM remains“ and severe crises, including those with a fatal outcome, at the end of the year, with the silence of the official Belgrade and pro-governmental media, the process of re-registration of vehicles with Serbian markings of towns in Kosovo to RKS was completed, with over 4,200 registered vehicles.
The decision to eliminate the use of stickers for RKS plates came into force on January 1, when this new disclaimer was posted at the crossings between the territory of Kosovo and Serbia proper.
Immediately after the government of Serbia’s decision, the European Union asked the government of Kosovo to make the same move to enable the free movement of vehicles with Serbian license plates, without stickers.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ajbin Kurti, who has been talking about reciprocity since coming to power, however, in his first reaction said that he will wait to see if Serbia implements its decision.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo has been insistent on reciprocity since coming to power. He especially emphasized that reciprocity should be introduced when it comes to plates, saying that he would wait to see if Serbia really respects it. His deputy repeated the same claims, stating that before Pristina decides to do so, Serbia must implement its decision, but also publish it publicly, or deliver it to them in writing.
„The moment our authorities report that Serbia is fully implementing this decision, and when I see that the decision is published or printed somewhere, then Kosovo will also act according to that decision and decide to do the same, and that means that stickers will become a thing of the past,“ said Bislimi in an interview for Radio Gorazdevac.
However, even though 10 days have passed since the official Belgrade made a decision about the sticker regime – it has yet to be published on the website of the government of Serbia.
KoSSev, however, had insight into this document, which was also published on social networks on Wednesday night.
Read more:
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
