(PRISTINA) – Kosovo and Serbia sat down for groundbreaking talks Tuesday to find a solution to some of the practical problems caused by Belgrade’s refusal to recognise Pristina as independent.

On the agenda for the first round of talks were communications, trade agreements and customs as Europe is pushing for a focus on regional cooperation, freedom of movement and rule of law.

High on the list of concrete problems for Kosovars is Serbia’s refusal to recognise documents issued by the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo. Since Kosovo passports are not valid in Serbia, Kosovars wanting to travel to western Europe over land have to take a detour via Albania and Montenegro.

In a typical Catch 22, Kosovars are entitled to Serb papers, but Serbia moved all of Kosovo’s civil registries to Serbia proper after the 1999 conflict.

To obtain a birth certificate, which is needed to apply for a Serbian passport, applicants need to travel to Serbia, which is not possible with documents issued in Pristina.

Even with the right personal documents, travelling in a car with Kosovo-issued licence plates is illegal in Serbia; the train connections between Kosovo and Serbia have lain idle since 1999; and Serbia does not allow airlines to use its airspace to get from western Europe to Pristina.

Kosovo for its part doesn’t recognise new Serbian licence plates issued by Serbia’s parallel administration in the Serb-majority north and enclaves.

Serbs with Belgrade plates can travel to Pristina, but Serbs from Kosovo’s Gracanica enclave a stone’s throw from Pristina must have two sets of licence plates if they want to travel freely.

After the 1999 war, departing Serb authorities moved cadastral and land registration records to Serbia, making land management difficult in particular to determining ownership of Kosovo property. Pristina is expected to demand the cadastral records be returned.

Kosovo has banned Serbian mobile phone operators and destroyed transmitters last year, harming the Serb minority’s connections with Serbia proper.

Meanwhile Kosovo does not have its own telephone country code; it still shares the Serbian +381 prefix. Kosovo’s own mobile phone operators issue numbers with the national codes for Monaco or Slovenia.

Serbia blocks the passage of goods from Kosovo over its territory while Serbian goods are freely allowed to enter Kosovo, in particular through the Serb-majority north that is a haven for illicit trade between traffickers on both sides.

The activity is a drag on Kosovo’s budget costing more then 100 million euros (140 million dollars) a year, according to the authorities in Pristina.

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Original: http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/kosovo-serbia-talks.8xd

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