The license plate dispute ends, Kosovo and Serbia reach an agreement

“We have a deal,” Borrell tweeted after an EU-brokered deal was reached in Brussels.

“I am very pleased to announce that the main negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia, with the help of the EU, have agreed on measures to prevent further escalation and fully focus on the proposal for the normalization of mutual relations.”

Kosovo asked Kosovo Serbs to use exclusively Kosovan license plates, while it considered those issued by the Serbian authorities to be illegal.

The agreement was actually reached in five minutes to twelve. Kosovo planned to start issuing fines from Thursday to some 10,000 Serbian drivers who continued to use Serbian license plates. In protest, Kosovo Serbs have left key state institutions, creating a “very dangerous security vacuum”, according to Borrell.

An earlier attempt collapsed on Monday when Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic failed to reach an agreement and Kosovo was forced to delay the start of fines for drivers by 48 hours at the request of states United.

“Serbia will stop issuing license plates with the names of Kosovo cities and Kosovo will stop further actions related to re-registration of vehicles,” Borrell wrote.

Borrell said he will invite the two sides to talk in the coming days on the EU proposal, which is also supported by France and Germany, and which would allow the conflicting parties to normalize relations.