“We ask the Government of Kosovo not to continue with fines (for Serbian citizens in the north), to extend for ten months the deadline for the re-registration of cars and to urgently start negotiations for the formation of the Association”.

That is the statement issued by the US ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier in a meeting with journalists on November 9.

The statements of the American ambassador come a few days after the officials of the Serbian List, the main party of the Serbs in Kosovo  announced that the northern Serbs will leave the institutions of justice, order, municipal, but also from the Assembly and the Government of Kosovo.

This, after the Government of Kosovo launched on November 1 the implementation of a plan to re-register cars with illegal Serbian license plates, which was opposed by the majority of local Serbs and official Belgrade.

The European Union and the United States of America asked the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, that this plan be postponed for ten months, but this request was rejected. Tensions escalated in the north “because of the Franco-German plan”.
On November 7, Prime Minister Kurti accused the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, of destabilizing the situation in the north and said that this is happening because, as he said, the Serbian side rejected the Franco-German plan. This plan, as reported, foresees the settlement of disputes between Kosovo and Serbia.

According to Kurti, Vucic is using members of illegal Serbian structures in the north of Kosovo for destabilization.

For Kosovo, according to Kurti, the Franco-German plan is “a step in the right direction”.
In an interview for Radio Free Europe, the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, said that the Franco-German proposal envisages the resolution of disputes in two stages. “A large part of the disputes would be resolved now, while a very small part, which they say is 1 % would be left for a later period”, said Bislimi.

Vucic said last month that France and Germany proposed that Serbia allow Kosovo to join international organizations and institutions, including the United Nations, in exchange for its rapid integration into the EU.

The EU and the USA have repeatedly called for Kosovo to take steps towards the creation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority. Kosovo and Serbia have reached an agreement on the creation of this association in 2013, within the dialogue for the normalization of relations, mediated by the EU.

In 2015, the parties signed the Agreement on the principles for the formation of this association. That same year, the Constitutional Court found that some points of this agreement are not in harmony with the constitutional spirit and that they should be harmonized.

Kurti has stated several times that he is against the formation of an ethnic association. Serbia, on the other hand, insists that the association should be formed and have executive powers.

/k.s/