EU-facilitated Dialogue: Implementation of the freedom of movement agreement

Edita Tahiri, Minister for Dialogue, and Marko Djuric, Chief Negotiator for the Dialogue, reached an arrangement on the implementation of the remaining elements from the EU-facilitated Dialogue

Today, 14 September, following extensive discussions, Edita Tahiri, Minister for Dialogue, and Marko Djuric, Chief Negotiator for the Dialogue, reached an arrangement on the implementation of the remaining elements from the EU-facilitated Dialogue agreement on freedom of movement from 2011.

In order to ease the free flow of people and goods, the parties agreed that so called ‘proba’ plates will no longer be required as of 15 November 2016 for travelling from one side to the other. Both sides agreed to cover relevant parts of the respective licence plates with stickers. Licence plates used by residents in Kosovo* will not be affected by this sticker regime.

On licence plates, parties agreed that the registration of all vehicles with licence plates issued by Kosovo authorities will commence on 15 January 2017 and will last for 12 months at the end of which the issue will be reviewed within the Dialogue.

Kosovo will extend the validity of KS licence plates for 5 years at the end of which the issue will be reviewed within the Dialogue.

The parties also agreed that an information campaign will be carried out by them and the EU to explain to the affected residents modalities for registering vehicles with these licence plates. Content and modalities of this campaign will be discussed within the next weeks.

The EU welcomes the outcome of today’s discussion and urges both sides to make progress on all other outstanding implementation work, in particular on Telecoms, the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities and on Energy.

On Telecoms, extensive discussions took place and progress has been made on key elements for implementation. Both sides agreed to continue the negotiations on 26 September in Brussels under EU facilitation.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.