Kosovo PM: Agreement on normalization with Serbia before spring 2023

Kurti said talks for a deal with Serbia would start within days under EU mediation and supported by the United States, Reuters reported.

The licensing deal, Kurti said, had established both parties would "negotiate and agree on an EU proposal, supported by France and Germany, in order to reach the final deal as soon as possible".

This means before spring of 2023. It can be earlier but it cannot be later than that, stressed Kurti.

Kurti told the Kosovo Parliament the licensing issue would become irrelevant once a final deal has been reached.

He said that Kosovo’s goal was for the Franco-German proposal for the normalization, as a legally binding international agreement with Serbia, to be negotiated in Brussels towards reaching an agreement, “which is normal and democratic.”

Kurti informed the Kosovo MPs about some of the details of the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia reached Wednesday evening, and pointed out that the issue of license plates was a technical one, but that the “consequences are more than political,” Radio TV Kosovo (RTK) reported.

“On Monday I was offered a document as a joint understanding that had 95 words, and the words France and Germany were not there, and it did not refer to the French-German proposal, except for the issue of license plates,” said Kurti.

In the meantime, the Wednesday document had 194 words, it is completely different, said Kurti.

“Those who say that what was not accepted on Monday was accepted on Wednesday, don’t know what they’re talking about. Borrell’s statement changed, we didn’t change our position. Borrell changed his statements,” Kurti repeated a number of times.

We agreed that both parties will suspend their activities, so we will not be issuing fines for KM (Serbia-issued) license plates and we will make room for negotiations on the European proposal, which we used to call the Franco-German proposal, Kurti said.