Kosovo Re-issues Old Plates for Serbs

Kosovo’s government started re-issuing on Monday the UNMIK era plates, but issued a decree for police to begin confiscating all plates, old and new, issued by Serbia from January 1.

A senior interior ministry official told Balkan Insight that the administrative decision, entered into force on November 1 and will last for two months

“The old KS [Kosovo] plates can be purchased until December 31 2011. Another decision orders the removal of old and new Serbia plates, which mark Kosovo cities from the former Serb and Yugoslav regime,” said Sebahate Muharremi-Pllana, the Director of the Vehicle and Licences department.

The move is part of the EU brokered deal between Pristina and Belgrade on freedom of movement.

Pristina agreed to rerelease the “KS” plates, which had been withdrawn since 2010, and make them valid in parallel with the existing post-independence RKS version, which stands for Republic of Kosovo.

Belgrade was expected to allow Kosovo Albanians to travel inside Serbia with IDs or driving licenses issued by Pristina’s authorities. This had been scheduled for November, but there has been no movement on this issue since the deal was signed.

Borislav Stefanovic was unavailable for comment yesterday but sources in the Serbian border police said they had been given no orders to change their current policy of rejecting Kosovo documents.

Kosovo’s Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi added that Kosovo Serbs were now able to register their vehicles with Serbian identity cards or driving licences.

A source within the Government of Kosovo told Balkan Insight that Pristina will ask Brussels to penalize Serbia for not doing its side of the bargain.

“No single Kosovo Albanian has ever crossed into Serbia with our [Kosovo] own issued documents, which restricts the freedom of movement. We don’t have any problem with Serbia, but the EU, as the guarantor of the dialogue, should ensure political consequences. There are no indications yet that Belgrade will take part in the next round of talks,” the source said.