Belgrade’s chief negotiator Petar Petkovic said in Brussels late on Wednesday night that the agreement he reached with Pristina’s negotiator Besnik Bislim means that there will be no punitive policy towards Kosovo Serb drivers whose Serbian-issued license plates will remain valid.

“We managed to reach an agreement after seven hours of hard talks an in line with what Belgrade insisted on. This agreement means that there will be none of (Kosovo Prime Minister) Albin Kurti’s punitive policies against Serbs driving with KM (Kosovska Mitrovica) license plates. There will be no 150 Euro fines that Kurti planned on nor any punitive policy in all other stages which were part of Kurti’s decision on re-registration,” Petkovic said.

According to him, the one thing that is especially important is that the KM plates will remain in place. “Those are plates which are legal, which the Serbs can use and will continue to be in use as they have to date. That means owners of cars with KM Plates will be able to register them normally. We will only stop issuing new license plates until we reach an agreement,” the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo said. “We have saved our Serbian KM plates,” he said.

He said that the peace was maintained and the Serbs in north Kosovo have been protected.

Petkovic said that Kurti accepted everything he rejected in the past few days.