Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU and US defuse Kosovo-Serbia car dispute

  • A Serb enclave in North Mitrovica, Kosovo, has been a long-standing source of tension (Photo: morbin)
Listen to article

Kosovo and Serbia, with EU and US support, have ended a potentially explosive dispute on car number-plates.

Under the deal, Nato soldiers will guard crossing points between a Serb enclave in northern Kosovo and Serbia from Saturday (2 October).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

And local officials will put stickers on car plates to cover up national insignia until a better solution is found over the next six months by a special, EU-chaired "working group".

"After two days of intense negotiations, an agreement on de-escalation and the way forward has just been reached," the EU's special envoy to the Western Balkans, Miroslav Lajčák, said in Brussels on Thursday.

"It's good for the whole region," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also said, while visiting Belgrade.

The deal was "fair", Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić said, adding: "I would like ... to find more lasting solutions that would not include recognition of Kosovo".

Tensions flared recently when Kosovo sent special police to the border to stop Serb-plate cars in protest at Serbia's treatment of Kosovar-plate vehicles, while Serbia sent armoured cars and warplanes in response.

"The rapidness of the onset of tensions was a little bit surprising," Gabriel Escobar, a senior US official dealing with the Western Balkans, also said in Brussels on Thursday.

"Ethnic tensions in the region are as high as they've been in a long time, and ... it needs the kind of energetic diplomacy and engagement that we had in the '90s," he added.

Escobar spoke to press after helping Lajčák to broker the car deal in talks with Kosovo and Serb officials.

"The purpose of my trip was to show support for the [EU-brokered] dialogue and make it clear that we see the dialogue as the place where these issues should be resolved," he said.

His supporting role marked a change from the former US administration of president Donald Trump, which sidelined the EU by holding its own Kosovo-Serbia talks in Washington.

The US re-engagement with the EU on the Western Balkans comes amid talk of a new transatlantic rift over a US defence deal with Australia, which destroyed a huge French contract.

But when asked if Western allies risked going separate ways, Escobar said: "No, no, no."

"Nato's still the cornerstone of our security policy ... Even though many of our [US] challenges are outside of Europe, the core of our partners are in Europe and that won't change," he said.

For their part, EU leaders are to meet Western Balkan ones in Brdo, Slovenia, next week to reaffirm their "unequivocal support to the European perspective of the Western Balkans", according to a draft declaration.

But for all the nice words, enlargement is being held up by a row between Bulgaria and North Macedonia and by Danish, Dutch, and French scepticism more broadly speaking.

EU states might even suspend visa-free travel from the region due to a recent spike in "unfounded" asylum applications.

And for his part, Escobar warned: "The message that the [EU] door is open needs to be broadcast more widely".

"People in the region sometimes don't hear that message or hear the message that the door is closed," he said.

The US official celebrated what EU enlargement had already achieved.

"We can't ignore the fact that enlargement pushed the borders of freedom and democracy as far east as we could," Escobar said.

"The real story of the Balkans is dynamic economic growth," he added.

He played down concerns that Serbia was too close to Russia.

"Aside from gas, they [the Russians] provide almost no exports. They import very little. They are not even close to being one of the top 10 investors in the Serbian economy," he said.

And he predicted that the five EU states which did not recognise Kosovo - Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain - would reconsider their position if Serbia did so in the end.

"The five non-recognisers are waiting for the outcome of the [EU-brokered] dialogue before they declare themselves," Escobar said.

Exclusive

Germany leads objections to Balkan/Eastern visa-free travel

Unlawful residency and unfounded asylum claims from some western Balkan states, plus Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, is triggering discussions on suspending visa-free travel to the EU - led by Germany, France and Italy.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us