Serbia and Kosovo agree on the free movement of their citizens between the two countries

First modification: 08/28/2022 – 23:48

Joseph Borrell, High Representative for EU Foreign and Security Policy, congratulated the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo for agreeing that the two countries abolish entry and exit documents for their citizens, in order to facilitate free movement .

With the agreement, Kosovo Serbs and other citizens will be able to travel freely between borders using only their national identity cards respectively, according to the EU foreign policy official.

“The EU has just received guarantees from the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, in this regard. This is a European solution. We congratulate the two leaders for the decision and their leadership,” concluded Borrell, also referring to the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic.

And it is that at the end of July there were moments of high tension on the borders of the two countries, before the entry into force of some measures that the Government of Kosovo had described as “reciprocity” and with which they proposed to stop accepting the identity documents and car license plates from Serbia.

Last week, intermediaries from the EU and the United States met in order to seek solutions to avoid new tensions between Kosovo and Serbia.

“We want the two parties to commit that there will be no violence,” the US envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said last Friday.

Different meetings were held between the intermediaries last week, leaving the signing of the agreement as the final result.

The tension around Kosovo as an independent state

Currently, Kosovo is a state with limited recognition, its government unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008 with the support of the United States and most EU countries.

This was the second declaration of independence in recent Kosovar history, on September 7, 1990, the institutions of this territory declared their intention to become independent from Yugoslavia, which never had practical effect.

However, Serbia still regards the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metojia as an autonomous region within its own territory.

The recognition of Kosovo is a matter of international controversy and divided those who opposed it at the time, such as Serbia, Russia and its allies, a large part of Latin America and Spain, who were opposed to the recognition of the province as an independent state.

For its part, the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution proposed by Serbia to ask the International Court of Justice if Kosovo’s declaration of independence was compatible with international law.

On July 22, 2010, the high court communicated its non-binding conclusion, assuring that the declaration of independence did not violate international law or Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, which authorized the international presence of civilians and military in 1999 to create an observation entity in the country with limited recognition.

Currently Kosovo is not a member of the UN, since two of the permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, have used their right to veto for considering the independence of the region illegal.

Kosovo is recognized by 98 of the 193 states that make up the United Nations.

Despite the long dispute, Kosovo has shown on several occasions its intention to join Albania, since the ethnic group of that country is the most numerous in the Balkan peninsula.

Neither Serbia nor Kosovo belong to the European Union

Although the EU served as a mediator to achieve the mobility agreement between Serbs and Kosovars, neither of the two governments has been admitted as a member of the European Union.

On the one hand, both the Government of Serbia and the EU agree on the possibility of this country joining the Union, although for this to happen the Government commanded from Belgrade would have to undergo various internal reforms.

The European Commission considers Serbia as a “candidate” country to join the EU and has set 2025 as a possible date for this to happen. However, it is a process that depends on many factors, which are affected by political will.

As for Kosovo, recognition is more difficult, since it presents various obstacles in the development of bilateral negotiations, in addition to the fact that all EU States would have to ratify their accession to the organization and only 23 of the 27 countries recognize its independence.

Similarly, Kosovo has been recognized as a “potential candidate” to join the Union and is given a “European perspective”, according to the Council of the European Union.

with EFE