Targets: Stano talks tomorrow's meeting between Kosovo, Serbia in Brussels

The European Union has confirmed that Thursday, on 21 October, the first working group meeting on the issue of vehicle license plates between Kosovo and Serbia will take place.

The first meeting of the working group for car license plates with experts from both sides will be held on 21 October. The processing group aims to find a permanent solution to this issue”, EU spokesman Peter Stano said in a response to Radio Free Europe.

Stano added that the expert working group is expected to meet regularly.

On September 20th, the Kosovo government imposed the reciprocity measure for license plates from Serbia. This decision was followed by protests and rioting barricades in the vicinity of two border crossings linking Kosovo and Serbia: Jarinje and Brnjak.

On September 30th, with the European Union's mediation, the parties reached a temporary solution, and both states on October 4th began placing sticky letters on state symbols on the license plates.

Under this agreement, Kosovo and Serbia will form a working group, which within six months will reach a sustainable solution to the issue of freedom of movement.

Meanwhile, Stano told Free Europe Radio that meetings of negotiating and high-level teams will be held independently of the meetings of this working group.

However, Stano said that “does not yet have a date” for the summits of negotiators or high-level meetings, within the EU-mediated dialogue, but are working in that direction.

EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell had talked with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, after increasing tensions in northern Kosovo, and had called on them to return to the dialogue table as soon as possible.

Tensions in municipalities in northern Kosovo rose even after an anti-muggling action carried out by Kosovo Police and Customs on 13 October, on Cʹrast, as a result of protests and barricades in northern Mitrovica and Zvecan, dozens of protesters and police were injured.

Even the European Commission, through the Progress Report, published on October 19th, invited Kosovo and Serbia to have a constructive engagement in dialogue and to urgently reach a comprehensive, legally binding agreement on normalisation of reports.

Dialogue on normalisation of reports between Kosovo and Serbia, under EU mediation, has started in 2011.