Serbia, Kosovo meeting ends without compromise on license plate debate

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia were unable to find a compromise on a license plate dispute, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Thursday.

“We did not get to an agreement today” but the parties are willing to resume negotiations “in the coming days,” Borrell said in a statement after meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

“We don’t give up, we need to continue discussing,” he said, stressing that Kosovo and Serbia have “no alternative” to the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue to find a solution to disputes.

He said that the leaders had a “crisis management meeting” in response to “negative developments on the ground” which is a “symptom of a global issue, the unresolved status of the relations” between the two countries.

Regarding the war in Ukraine, Borrell said: “This is not the moment for increasing tensions, it is for looking for solutions” and urged the leaders to engage in talks in “good faith.”

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo increased earlier this month because of Kosovo’s planned implementation of a new law making it mandatory for everyone, including Serbs living in Kosovo, to have a Kosovo ID card and license plate.

Kosovo, however, has delayed the new measures until Sept. 1.

Launched in 2011, the EU-led Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue aims to normalize relations between the Western Balkan neighbors.

The last high-level meeting with the participation of Kurti and Vucic took place June 15, 2021.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, with most UN member-states, including the US, UK, France, Germany, and Türkiye, recognizing it as a separate autonomous country from its neighbor.

Serbia continues to see Kosovo as its territory.​​​​​​​