Kosovo-Serbia License Plates ‘Sticker Regime’ Comes Into Force

Drivers crossing the Kosovo-Serbia border on Monday started covering the state symbols on their vehicles' license plates in accordance with an agreement reached in Brussels last week.

This is a temporary solution to the license plates dispute between the two countries which saw the roads to two border crossings blocked by Kosovo Serbs for almost two weeks.

"Implementation has started at national level at all border crossing points, as preparations have been made in time in terms of human resources and logistics, in order to enable citizens … with temporary plates in the form of stickers the possibility of free … movement," a Kosovo police press statement read on Monday.

Two border crossings in Jarinje and Bernjak, in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, were blockaded by Serbian protesters for 13 days.

Serbs started their blockade, and Kosovo deployed Special Police to the border area, after the dispute erupted on September 20, over Kosovo's insistence that vehicles with Serbian license plates must change to temporary Kosovo ones when they enter the country, as Kosovo vehicles must do when entering Serbia.

Under the three-point agreement reached between Kosovo and Serbia, under the EU-facilitated dialogue, in Brussels, on September 30, stickers will be placed over each country's insignia on number plates at border crossings in order to cover them up.

The EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, continues patrolling and monitoring the area as well as the 'sticker regime,'" the head of EULEX, Lars Gunnar Wigemark, said on Twitter on Sunday.

State symbols on license plates being covered by stickers in the Kosovo-Serbia border. Photo: Kosovo Police

The first point of the agreement, requiring the removal of the...