Even after the “European solution” for identity cards within the framework of the dialogue to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, there still remains a certain number of members of the Serbian community living and working in Kosovo who do not have the possibility to obtain Kosovo documents.
Written by: Ana Qup
It is known that since the creation of Kosovo’s identity documents, which, as you may recall, transitioned from UNMIK-issued ID cards to those of Kosovo, the official authorities in Belgrade and the Serbian government did not recognize them. From the beginning of the Brussels Agreement, and later the Ohrid Agreement, it was always ‘negotiated’ that freedom of movement for citizens would be a priority, but it turned out not to be so. After many years, reciprocity was established regarding Serbian documents, and Serbia finally accepted those issued by Kosovo.
Although the first Brussels Agreement was signed in 2011 by the then Prime Ministers of Kosovo and Serbia, Hashim Thaçi and Ivica Dačić, with the mediation of the then High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, it seems that after fourteen years since that agreement, there has been some easing but only for certain citizens.
Then came the agreements of 2013 and 2015, where the main focus was the establishment of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities, through which the Serbian community, as a majority-minority community in Kosovo, would exercise certain rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Kosovo.
Governments in Kosovo changed — from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, to the Democratic League of Kosovo, to the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo — but in the past four years, since the Vetëvendosje Movement came to power, it seems that more effort has been made to create difficulties for citizens than to bring relief.
There is still a certain number of members of the Serb community who live and work in Kosovo but are unable to obtain Kosovo-issued documents. The only documents they possess are those issued by the Serbian system, referencing municipalities in Kosovo such as “PU Priština,” “PU Kosovska Mitrovica,” or “PU Gnjilane.” These documents are considered “illegal” by Kosovo institutions and are deemed invalid, leaving ordinary citizens restricted in their movement, fearing fines or even arrest for possessing “illegal documents.” At the same time, the very same authorities do not allow them to obtain Kosovo documents. There is also a fear that they might be deported from Kosovo even though their entire lives, families, and jobs are based here.
Marijana Jovanović has been living in North Mitrovica since 2003. Her father was born in what was then called Tito’s Mitrovica, which is still known as Mitrovica today, though now divided into South and North. Her mother was born in Gračanica. Marijana’s unfortunate circumstance is that she was born in Kraljevo in 1988 a city that belongs to the Raška district in Serbia.
She completed part of her primary school in North Mitrovica, followed by high school and university. In that city, she got married, started a family, and found employment. To this day, she does not possess Kosovo-issued documents, despite having tried to obtain them for years.
According to the administrative instruction signed in 2013 by the then Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo Jakup Krasniqi it was not possible to have dual citizenship for example Kosovo and Serbia and therefore dual documents. Members of the Serbian community did not want to give up Serbian citizenship at that time because as mentioned earlier Serbia did not recognize Kosovo documents and entering Serbia with Kosovo ID cards was not allowed. Later in 2021 when Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti introduced reciprocity for Serbian documents Serbia allowed entry with Kosovo documents and the Government of Kosovo promised to make it easier for non-majority communities to transition from Serbian to Kosovo documents not only ID cards but also driver’s licenses. And this began but there are conditions that some citizens such as the aforementioned Marijana do not meet. Now dual citizenship is allowed but if you want to obtain Kosovo documents more specifically the citizenship extract ‘Ekstrakt’ you must provide proof that between 1990 and 1999 you had an ID issued by the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia registered in a municipality in Kosovo. Many people don’t have this but instead possess school records workbooks and similar documents which the officials at the Civil Registration Centers cannot recognize because it must be a photo ID meaning an ID card or passport.
Marijana Jovanović was a minor at that time and reached adulthood in 2006, so this rule does not apply to her. She was told that she had to obtain a residence permit for five years, and afterward they would check (they did not explain to her how) whether she had the right to citizenship. For the residence permit, she applied at the Migration Center in Pristina in 2019, and then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and she did not return. Later, when the coronavirus pandemic ended, she was told that the previous residence permit lasted only six months and that she would have to do everything again from the beginning.
The paradox in her case is that in the Serbian system she married a citizen of Kosovo in 2011, and she has a marriage certificate in the Kosovo system (for which her husband applied as soon as they got married and received it), her children have certificates with Kosovo citizenship because they were born in Kosovo, but she still has not been able to obtain personal documents after so many years.
The new directive, as a facilitating circumstance, is valid from February until April 2025, allowing citizens who were born in Kosovo after 1999 to apply for Kosovo documents. This directive does not provide a solution for Marijana’s problem, and there are many people like Marijana in Kosovo.
A “European solution” was reached, said in 2022 the then High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Joseph Borrell, adding that after nine days of negotiations in the Brussels dialogue, an agreement was reached on identity cards between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. In practice, this agreement seems to be valid only for Kosovo and Serbia to recognize documents already issued, but there is still no solution for those who have only Serbian documents issued by police administrations of cities in Kosovo, which Kosovo institutions consider illegal.
(The author is a journalist in the Municipality of Gračanica. This publication was made possible within the framework of the project “Dialogue, Solution, Future,” supported by the Federal Republic of Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, implemented by the New Social Initiative (NSI) and the Musine Kokalari Institute for Social Policies. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the Musine Kokalari Institute for Social Policies and the New Social Initiative. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany).