EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell announced overnight that Kosovo and Serbia had reached a deal to end their row over car license plates, which Brussels, Washington and NATO had warned could escalate into violence.
“Serbia will stop issuing license plates with Kosovo cities’ denominations,” Borrell said, while “Kosovo will cease any further actions related to re-registration of vehicles.”
The license plate issue has been a source of contention for some time, with approximately 100,000 local Serbs in Kosovo using plates issued by Belgrade that are illegal in Kosovo. Kosovo had threatened to start issuing fines to those drivers earlier this week, before agreeing to a 48-hour delay requested by the U.S.
The 11th-hour agreement paves the way for a deescalation of tensions.
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