Four days have passed since vehicles with RKS license plates started freely moving throughout Serbia proper without using stickers. This benefit was made possible for drivers from Kosovo by the government of Serbia’s decision made at the end of 2023. The decision was not officially announced, instead, the public learned about it during an address by the head of the Kosovo Office, Petar Petković. The KoSSev portal had insight into this document.
It is actually a decision made by the government of Serbia adopted on December 25 and, as the document states, it originated from a proposal by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia.
The document consists of three points.
The first point states that with this decision, the previous decisions of the government of Serbia – number: 27-10533/2016 from November 3, 2016 and number: 27-7768/2019 from August 1, 2019 – have been repealed.
At the same time, it contains no explanation of what exactly is being made invalid.
The second point reveals that this is the decision that Petar Petković spoke about, as per which the free movement of vehicles with RKS plates is permitted. At the same time, the document emphasized that this does not mean that Serbia has recognized Kosovo.
„Enabling participation in the road traffic of all vehicles registered by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Pristina is effected solely for practical reasons in order to facilitate individuals’ daily lives and enable their freedom of movement. This cannot be interpreted as recognition of the unilaterally declared independence of ‘Kosovo’, it does not prejudice the determination of the final status of ‘Kosovo,’ and cannot be construed as Belgrade’s consent to deviate from the rights guaranteed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).“
In the third and final point, it is stated that this decision, for the purpose of implementation, is submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Finance to the Customs Administration, and for the purpose of information – to the Kosovo Office and the Office for Coordination Affairs in the negotiation process with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Pristina.
However, by the time this news was published, we did not find any of these conclusions on the website of the government of Serbia, in the „documents“ section, which contains an archive of decisions made at sessions of the government of Serbia in previous years.
KoSSev portal reached out to the government of Serbia with a request to confirm the authenticity of the document, however, by the time this news was published, no response was forthcoming.
Although data for each session individually are available on the website, including those held on December 25 this year, November 3, 2016, and August 1, 2019, the decisions published at that time do not include the conclusions of the government of Serbia on license plates.
The government’s conclusions are generally not published, and when it comes to access to the old ones, it requires access to the government’s electronic service, legal expert Dragutin Nenezić explained for KoSSev.
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.
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 read „there is no surrender – KM remains“ and severe crises, including those resulting in fatalities, at the end of the year, with the silence of 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.
After Belgrade decided to remove the stickers from the RKS license plates, Petković spoke out about this decision by accusing the previous government that the current one only had to implement the agreements that their predecessors had previously signed. At the same time, he alleged that “it is a piece of paper which will help and make life easier for Serbs in Kosovo.”
However, he underlined that this does not mean that Serbia recognizes Kosovo, announcing the introduction of another disclaimer that is identical to the content of the second point of the decision.
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.
Although 10 days have passed since it was adopted, the text of the decision, however, has not been published by Petković, nor by the government of Serbia.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, also remarked on this earlier this week.
„Either this is due to a lack of transparency, or it has to do with the methodology of how they publish official documents,“ said Bislimi in an interview with Radio Gorazdevac.
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, that is, when Serbia removes the stickers, Pristina will do the same.
Pristina has yet to abolish the sticker regime. After Belgrade announced its decision, Kurti said 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.
Yesterday, however, the spokesman of the Kosovo government, Perparim Kryeziu, announced that Pristina will soon decide to enable vehicles with Serbian license plates to move on the territory of Kosovo without stickers.
According to unofficial information, Pristina could make this decision today.
Read more:
The Kosovo government abolishes sticker regime for Serbian license plates
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
