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According to the EU’s foreign policy chief, Joseph Borrell, Serbia and Kosovo have reached an agreement on terms of entry.
According to EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell (75), two Balkan neighbors Serbia and Kosovo settled their dispute over entry terms just before the new deadline. “We have a deal,” Borrell said on the text messaging service Twitter on Saturday. Serbia has agreed to allow holders of Kosovo identity documents to enter the country without additional documents. In return, Kosovo abandoned plans to make it more difficult for Serbian citizens to enter the country in the future.
Borrell spoke of a “European solution”. The Spanish politician also wrote: “We congratulate both leaders (Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic (52) and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurdi (47)) for this decision.” Kosovar Prime Minister Kurdi responded on Twitter shortly after: “Reciprocity should be the spirit of fundamental solutions.” At first there was no reaction from Vucic.
The EU has wanted the deal for years
The controversial entry rules for Serbs into Kosovo were due to come into force on Thursday 1 September. First, they should have come into effect on August 1. However, under pressure from the US and EU, the plans were postponed by a month. The goal of the Kosovar government was to treat Serbs crossing the border the same way they treated Kosovars in Serbia. For nearly a decade and a half, Serbia has refused to recognize the declaration of independence of its former province, Kosovo.
The EU has been trying for years to clarify the relationship between the two sides. It’s especially tense because Kosovo, now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, seceded from Serbia in 1999 with NATO help 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. (SDA)
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