Another “

So she responded to Radio Free Europe's request to comment on “the expressed” US and the EU for failing to implement the decision on Serbian illegal plates.

Kosovo's “government has witnessed reliable and stable allies' partners, in particular of the United States of America, with which we historically and traditionally have close and friendly relations”, says the Kosovo Government's written statement.

Last Friday, the government led by Albin Kurti made a decision to implement the decision to reregister cars with Serbian illegal license plates with Kosovo license plates: RKS, despite international demand that this decision be postponed for ten months.

The decision began to apply on November 1st in three phases. The first is the rebuke of drivers driving cars with such license plates; the second phase is a 150-euro fine for those drivers, and the third is a pro-saving license plates.

The implementation of this plan will be completed on April 21st, since only RKS or Republic of Kosovo will be allowed in circulation.

Kosovo has once postponed implementing the decision to reregister cars on July 31st as well as with the suggestion of internationals since some local Serbs in the north have rebelled and established barricades.

Following the publication of the three-phase plan on October 28th, the United States expressed “disillusioned and concerned” with the failure to press the verdict for another ten months, as they demanded. Similar disappointment, a day later, the European Union expressed.

Peci: No capacity to implement the Targa decision

Contacters of political processes in Kosovo have differing views regarding the Government of Kosovo's decision not to mark the deadline for car reregisteration, but also about the US and EU response.

Former Kosovo diplomat Lulzim Peci, currently director of the Kosovar Institute for Research and Development of Politics (KIPRED), tells Radio Free Europe that the three-phase plan of the Government of Kosovo could be brought to an uncomfortable position by Kosovo authorities. “Currently, Kosovo has no capacity to implement this government decision. The key problem lies with Kosovo police, who have no capacity to implement this government decision because we talk about thousands of vehicles in northern Kosovo...”, says Peci.

In northern Kosovo's predominantly Serb-run municipalities -- northern Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposaviq and Zubin Potok -- it is estimated that there are up to 10,000 vehicles with illegal license plates carrying Serbian acronyms of Kosovo cities like: KM, GL, PR, UR and so forth.

These vehicles have circulated since the postwar in 1999. Serbs in the north, mainly informed by official Belgrade, have refused to replace them, while Serbs in other parts of Kosovo have been using plates that Kosovo state issues with.

Baliqi: Government decision, half reconciliation with international side

Bekim Baliqi, political science professor at Pristina University, says the Kosovo Government's decision on license plates, but also US and EU reactions show that the parties are rational and that they try not to escalate the situation.

The international demand was not very reasonable because sometimes they have sought to postpone [the implementation of the government's decision]. But on the other hand, the Government's decision was also a half reconciliation with the international side and, in a sense, perhaps even pressure from the Government to make this 10-month extension, not just for the next ten months, but for it to be forwarded with shares. Very important is that the following days do not provoke the situation, but that we truly have a consensus between all sides”, Baliqi tells Radio Free Europe.

Are relations with Western partners damaged?

Lulzim Peci says the government's decision could harm Kosovo's interests. According to him, losing confidence in international partners, Kosovo could have consequences in interstate relations with them.

In the context of current developments in Europe, following the invasion of Ukraine from Russia, Peci says the US and the EU need peace in the Western Balkans, as well as the successful conclusion of dialogue for normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

If we, with such actions, create the situation on the ground, which takes the focus on the full normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia on other issues, such as this of license plates or the promotion of low-intensity conflicts that can scale [the highest] in the north ... virtually, in this case, we are giving a gift to Serbia. We are also making relations with our strategic partners worse. We think we have partners, but we're losing this partnership”, says Peci.

Baliqi demonstrates confidence that the Kosovo Government's decision on license plates will not spur any deterioration of Kosovo's reports with its Western partners.

The “does not mean that we have to automatism to comply with any incoming request, which, in some way, does not provide guarantees that will solve the” problem, Baliqi says.

Refusion for plates is not “

Kosovo has repeatedly rejected US demands, despite the fact that it has been among the main supporters of its statehood.

US officials, but the EU has asked the Kosovo government earlier to implement the Brussels Agreement to form the Association of Major Serb municipalities in Kosovo. But the formation of this association has been rejected by Kurti, who has said that a one-ethnic association would conflict with the Kosovo Constitution.

Kurti's government has also refused to implement the Washington Agreement on normalising economic relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which was reached at the White House in Washington on 4 September 2020. Government objections have particularly dealt with the project then called mini-Schengen, now known as the Open “Balcan”, as well as the question of Lake Weyman.

Even the Trans-Adriatic Gas pipeline project, which has been suggested by the United States of America, has not received the support of the Government of Kosovo. In the fall of 2020, the Government of Kosovo has withdrawn from the project to build gas infrastructure, financed by the US Government's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), despite the US's suggestion to the contrary.

Kurti's government has also failed to organise voting for Kosovo Serb citizens in Serbia's referendum on constitutional changes, on January 16th of 2022, despite the international community's calls.

The Kosovo government has also ignored continued US and EU demands that the Decani Monastery return 24 hectares of land, as the Constitutional Court of Kosovo decided in 2016. Kurti has argued that the Constitutional Court's decision is based on, as it has said, the “discrimination policy of the Government of Serbia from the years of 1990s.