Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said he is concerned on the eve of the start of implementing the Kosovo Government's decision to reregister cars. With this decision, dated 29 June, all license plate cars issued by Serbian authorities must be reregistered with republic of Kosovo plates.
Vehicles with such license plates - about 10,000 - are mainly circulating in northern Kosovo - a part inhabited by Serbian majority.
"I'm worried and we'll see how things develop," Vucic said Thursday.
The Kosovo Government's decision calls for car reregistration to start from 1 August and last until 30 September.
It is about cars that have license plates with acronyms of Kosovo cities, such as: PR for Pristina, GL for Kukes, PZ for Prizren, KM for 'Kosovo Mitrovica' and others.
They will now have to register with rks, meaning the Republic of Kosovo. On this issue, Kosovo and Serbia reached agreements in 2011, within the framework of dialogue for normalising relations, but it has not been implemented on the ground.
In municipalities in the north, car circulation with such plates, issued by Serbia's Interior Ministry, has continued, contrary to the agreement.
The European Union, as a mediator of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, has said Kosovo has the right to replace plates with the acronyms of cities. Vucic, according to Radio Europe and Lire, said authorities in Kosovo want "KM plates to exist nowhere".
"On what basis? Where do you write? He writes in the head of [Kosovo Prime Minister] Albin Curtis and the Quint countries [US, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France], because for them, Kosovo is a state," Vucic said.
With the Kosovo Government's decision, after 30 September, there will be no possibility of re-registration with license plates issued by Serbian authorities. But the Kosovo government has not indicated what will happen to cars that do not reregister with the RKS after this deadline.
From 1 August, another decision by the Kosovo Government to cross border points with personal documents, released by Serbian authorities, will come into force.
Under this decision, all those persons who have such documents, with entry into Kosovo territory, will receive a certificate replacing those documents.
This is a kind of reciprocal measure, as all Kosovo citizens entering Serbia's territory receive a certificate replacing their personal documents.