Belgrade and Pristina reached an agreement on the Kosovo customs stamp at Friday’s (September 2nd) round of talks in Brussels, but there is still room for doubt regarding the implementation of that agreement.
Both teams agreed the stamps would bear the words “Kosovo Customs”, without any additional symbols of Kosovo’s statehood.
“It is the stamp of the institution, Kosovo Customs, and the Customs Branch that is dealing with the issue,” Kosovo Customs spokeswoman Adriatik Stavileci told SETimes.
However, the head of the Belgrade delegation Borislav Stefanovic said the Serbian authorities “will not accept Kosovo customs on the administrative border crossings”.
“We think that the existing stamps are fully in accordance with all the international agreements in which Kosovo participates,” Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, told SETimes.
After the cancellation of talks on the customs stamp on July 20th, Kosovo authorities attempted to take over the crossings to Serbia in northern Kosovo, which is predominantly populated by Serbs. The clashes between the Kosovo police and the local Serbs left one Kosovo police officer dead.
Kosovo then banned Serbian imports. The Serbian Chamber of Commerce announced that the country’s economy lost about 45m euros since late July due to the ban. The agreement on the stamp is expected to somewhat improve relations.
The head of Kosovo’s negotiating team, Edita Tahiri, told Radio-Televizija Srbije television that the “breakthrough agreement” will enable free flow of goods.
Immediately after the agreement in Brussels, Stefanovic told the Serbian public that “the name of the stamp ‘Kosovo Customs’ does not jeopardize Serbia’s position, because the stamp will not bear any statehood symbols or the Kosovo coat of arms.”
However, Democratic Party of Serbia Vice-President Slobodan Samardzic, said that by making the agreement, Belgrade had “capitulated and taken another important step toward giving up Kosovo.”
“When the customs stamp is accepted, the Kosovo customs and Albanian border police at border crossings, which have up till now been administrative crossings, are also accepted,” Samardzic said.
The EU welcomed the outcome. Union mediator in the talks Robert Cooper said the agreement was “important for ordinary citizens”.
“An agreement that will enable trade in the region will also make the region more European,” Cooper said.
Kosovo Compromise project manager Aleksandar Mitic also told SETimes that the agreement was a success for Pristina.
“The agreement on the stamp is completely in the interest of Pristina, because that way it gains international sovereignty in economic relations. Belgrade authorities made that kind of a deal since they wanted to preserve Serbian EU perspectives after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told them to abolish Serbian institutions in Kosovo,” Mitic said.
Kosovo analyst Ibrahim Rexhepi, sayid the Customs stamp issue will not go down easily, “because the issue of independence and sovereignity of Kosovo is touched at that point”.
The talks also included the cadastral records. Both parties agreed to establish a cadastre in Kosovo to protect the rights of people with legitimate claims to property.
Source setimes.com
