According to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the neighboring Balkan countries of Serbia and Kosovo settled their dispute over entry regulations shortly before the end of a new deadline. “We have a deal,” reported Borrell on Saturday in the short message service Twitter. Serbia has agreed to allow holders of Kosovo identity papers to enter the country without any additional documents. In return, Kosovo dropped plans to make it more difficult for Serbian citizens to enter the country in the near future.
Borrell spoke of a “European solution”. The Spanish politician continued: “We congratulate both leaders (Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti) for this decision.” Shortly afterwards, Kosovan Prime Minister Kurti also responded on Twitter: “Reciprocity should be the spirit of fundamental solutions.” At first there was no reaction from Vucic.
The controversial entry rules for Serbs in Kosovo are due to come into force on Thursday, September 1st. Originally, they should have been in effect since August 1st. However, under pressure from the US and the EU, the plans were postponed by a month. The goal of the Kosovar government was to treat Serbs crossing the border in the same way as Kosovars were treated by Serbia.
For almost a decade and a half, Serbia has refused to recognize the declaration of independence of its former province of Kosovo. The EU has been trying for years to help clarify the relationship between the two sides. This is extremely tense because Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, split from Serbia in 1999 with the help of NATO and declared its independence in 2008. More than 100 countries, including Germany, recognized Kosovo’s independence. Others – including Russia, China and five EU countries – have not done so to date.