Las tensions of Belgrade and Pristina, the Kosovar capital, date back to the wars provoked by the dismemberment of Yugoslavia of the 1990s, which in this region culminated in the 1998-1999 war. This conflict finally stopped with the bombing of the Serbian capital by NATO, which intervened on behalf of the Kosovo Albanian majority. After this episode, the kosovar leaders declared unilaterally the independence of Kosovo from Serbia in 2008, but several countries in the world (including Spain) and Belgrade have never recognized the legitimacy of the declaration. What, since then, has kept in the razor edge the relationship between Kosovo and Serbia and has contributed to blocking the entry of both countries into the European Union.
In this context, in the last year, there has been a new escalation by the decision of pristine to require that all vehicles circulating in the country have license plates of Kosovo, something that around 50,000 Kosovar Serbs reject. Kosovo’s argument is that Belgrade does not recognize the documents issued by them either, so it would be a decision motivated by the principle of reciprocity.
Still, weeks ago, the high representative of the EU’s Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, announced that Pristina had finally agreed to the EU’s request to suspend its plans to fine vehicles with Serbian license plates and that Belgrade had promised to no longer issue these documents. But the announcement by the Kosovar authorities that they want to call new local elections shortly in the municipalities with a Serb majority has once again unearthed the crisis. So much so that in the last few hours, Pristina announced that these elections will be postponed, although the effects of this announcement are still uncertain.