Petkovic says interim license agreement still in effect

Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovovic, said that in the absence of a permanent agreement on plates, the regime of sticky paper coverage of state symbols in the license plates will continue.

Kosovo and Serbia failed to reach an agreement on license plates, during a meeting held on 21 April in Brussels, the day the interim agreement for the license agreement is expired, which was reached September 30th.

The agreement signed on September 30th is still in effect. You should be quiet. Nobody should worry. The agreement on the infectious card regime is still in effect. Until a lasting solution is found at a high level, the infectious card regime will continue”, he said.

Petkovic accused Kosovo of not being ready for any proposals during the six months as long as the working groups for the plates have worked. But such a charge has been made by Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, who said Serbia was unwilling to accept any permanent solution for the plates, nor did he agree to have a 30-day deadline to find a solution.

If they didn't make it in six months, can they do it in 30 days? We take care of peace and stability and will do everything to protect the interests of our people, but also to move towards normalising relations between Belgrade and Pristina”, Petkovic said after the meeting in Brussels.

Meanwhile, Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, said it remains with state leaders on how to keep going, but added that “we will treat freedom of movement as the Serbian side treats”.

The EU's special envoy for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, has urged the parties to meet in the coming days to discuss the license issue.

Kosovo and Serbia today, on April 21st, have expired to reach a final agreement regarding the license plates of Serbian and Kosovo cars that enter and exit the borders of two states.

On September 30th of last year in Brussels a temporary agreement has been reached regarding the plates, provided a final agreement is reached within six months.

With the interim agreement, Kosovo and Serbia have agreed that the vehicles of the two countries -- during the circulation in each other's territories -- cover with sticky white letters of state symbols in the license plates.

The agreement has been reached after several days of unrest in northern Kosovo, where some local Serbs had blocked roads to reject the Kosovo government's then ruling on reciprocity measures. With those measures, Serbia's license plates -- once it enters Kosovo territory -- has had to set temporary license plates like Kosovo license drivers did when they entered Serbia.