We hereby inform the public opinion that the free movement agreement is generally being well implemented as of December 26, 2011 when it entered into effect. During the time period of September 26, 2011 until January 9, 2012, based on the official report of Kosovo Police, the number of Kosovar citizens who have entered Serbia or who have passed transit into other countries, is 1949 persons and 899 vehicles. However, the process of implementation has seen problems from the Serbian side which have later been overcome due to the engagement of the Government of Kosovo and the European Union.
With this agreement reached in Brussels between the two states, for the first time after many years, Kosovo citizens are enable free movement towards the neighbouring state of Serbia by utilizing documents of the Republic of Kosovo. This agreement is based on the principle of reciprocity and engagements for establishing facilitations in the free movement according to the EU standards and that citizens are able to pass the border between the two countries with ID’s which is accompanied with an entry and exit paper which is issued by border authorities of the both countries.
We consider that this agreement is important particularly for the Kosovo diaspora where our citizens living in European countries apart from the other alternatives to travel to their home towns, they may also utilize this opportunity provided by the free movement agreement between the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia, which was reached on July 2, 2011, in Brussels.
It is important to underscore that during the holiday seasons, due to the increased number of citizens crossing the border, several issues have emerged from 6 – 9 January, 2012 on which event long waiting queues were created in Merdare and Dheu i Bardhë border crossing due to the slow control from the Serbian part. These obstacles were especially significant at Merdare border crossing where citizens with Kosovo documents were even stopped from crossing the border. Reasons provided by the Serbian side were technical in nature as their electronic system had problems facing the high volume of people.
The Government of the Republic of Kosovo is engaged in resolving these problems by demanding EU mediation that is also the guarantee of the agreements reached in the technical dialogue.
Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri has been on continued contact with the European Union and mediator Robert Cooper from whom she demanded to apply pressure on the Serbian party on avoiding such problems and the EU intervention yielded its results by restoring normality of the free movement of Kosovar citizens into Serbia.
After these obstacles, created from the Serbian part, we consider that regardless of the high number of citizens crossing the border which is usually witnessed during the holiday season, the Serbian side ought to have better prepared in facing such volumes of border crossings just as the Government of Kosovo who has implemented the free movement agreement with high efficiency even during the holiday season with the high volume of citizens crossing the border.
The Government of Kosovo has prepared an official report regarding the obstacles created in the implementation of the free movement agreement by the Serbian part, and this report shall be presented during the next round of talks in Brussels where the flow of the agreements’ implementation will be discussed.
The Government of Kosovo calls on all citizens that any possible irregularity which they may face while crossing the state border Kosovo-Serbia they should report those at the competent institutions of the Republic of Kosovo in order that such obstacles on the free movement of people and goods may be identified and eliminated.
Last modified: July 31, 2022