Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on “measures to avoid further escalation” in the license plate dispute, which has been increasing tensions between the two countries for months. This was announced by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last night.
“We have an agreement,” he wrote on Twitter after a fresh round of talks between Serbs and Kosovars in Brussels, explaining that Belgrade — which hasn’t recognized license plates issued by its formerly independent province since 2008 — has agreed to stop issuing Serbian license plates to Serbs residents of Kosovo.
While Pristina – which had announced that Serbian number plates will no longer be valid as of November 1 – will not ask vehicles that already have Serbian number plates to change them. In practice, this is the settlement proposal discussed on Monday, when negotiations broke down after 8 hours of negotiations. But after US mediation, the parties returned to the negotiating table. And now Borrell invites you to discuss “the next steps” in the next few days.