Kosovo, Serbia meet in Brussels next week

Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi and the director of the so-called Office for Kosovo in Serbia's Government, Petar Petkovic, will meet next week in Brussels. The two chief negotiators for the dialogue are expected to discuss the new vehicle license deal a few days before the October agreement expired. From the opposition, they say much time has been lost for a technical agreement, which is not an achievement, meanwhile, in civil society say it is the right moment for reaching a new agreement.

Next week's meeting confirmed for Kosova Prees, the Kosovo Government's spokesman, Kryeziu Progress. He says the Kosovo side has readiness for political high-level meetings as well, but the same must be agreed in advance, with clear agendas and content themes.

“Appointments are called and organised by the mediator of this process. They should be agreed in advance, with clear agenda and content themes. We have consistently shown readiness for such meetings. As for the meeting at the level of the chief negotiators, Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi and Petkovic are expected to meet during next week”, he says in a written response to Kosova Prees.

Such meetings, AAK MP Time Kadrijaj calls Kosovo a technique that has been losing for months. She says the Kosovo side should focus on political dialogue for reaching a final agreement.

We have requested that we withdraw from technical dialogue and move on to political dialogue. What needs to be dialogue is the final agreement that recognises Kosovo's independence, recognises the current borders, Kosovo's internal organisation. This should be negotiated and not lost months and negotiated for plates that are not any achieved. We have to move from technical to political level and this government should focus here”, she says.

On the other hand, Arber Fetah from the Group for Jury and Political Studies tells Kosovo that failure to reach an agreement would force the EU to publicly blame the blocking side of the agreement.

“If we see that dialogue is in the function of facilitating the lives of citizens and taking into account that there has been a kind of success the provisional agreement for license, it is the right moment for after the elections in Serbia to make this agreement permanent agreement with the new mode to decide how and freedom of movement to be unblocked on both sides. There is again the negative scenario again or the danger that this agreement will be blocked more by the Serb side... The failure to pass this agreement will lead the EU to blame one side publicly and more or less to blame one side as a blocker, which will have consequences in other EU-related processes”, Fetah says.

Several rounds of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbian expert groups for license plates have been held so far, but the final solution has not yet been found. In October of last year, Kosovo and Serbia reached a six-month interim agreement on placing posters on car plates. Kko