Belgrade and Pristina have reached an agreement on joint customs management at all border crossings in northern Kosovo, the Pristina newspaper Koha Ditore said on Saturday.
The Kosovo government has agreed to the compromise proposal put forward by the European Union that the border crossings in northern Kosovo be jointly controlled by police and customs officers of Kosovo, Serbia and the EU rule of law mission EULEX, the newspaper said.
The agreement was reached after EU mediator Robert Cooper secretly visited Pristina on Friday for talks with the head of the Kosovo negotiating team, Edita Tahiri.
Tahiri and chief Serbian negotiator Borislav Stefanovic are expected to meet in Brussels soon.
Media in Pristina say that Stefanovic demanded last month that the proposal for integrated border management apply only to the disputed border crossings at Jarinje and Brnjak, but that Cooper expanded the plan to include all six border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia.
With this agreement Belgrade has managed to ensure that the border crossings are included in the dialogue between the two countries, which the Kosovo government opposed. On the other hand, a few days ago the Kosovo Serbs were strongly opposed to the presence of Kosovo customs and police officers at the border crossings.
