A regular meeting of the Implementation Group on the IBM Agreement

Brussels, 23 June 2016

On 23 June 2016, Kosovo and Serbia met in Brussels to discuss on the implementation of IBM agreement.

The central topic of the meeting was reviewing the progress in the process of building permanent IBM facilities.

The EU Chairman, Bernd Thran stressed the importance of the progress achieved in this regard.

The delegation of the Republic of Kosovo presented the progress achieved in the fulfilment of its obligations, and commended the constructive cooperation with UNOPS and the EU office in Kosovo.

For its part, UNOPS made a presentation of the overall progress in the project, commending the cooperation with the Government of Kosovo in all phases of the implementation, and highlighting the effectiveness of Kosovo party as for the matters they dealt together. As for the Serbian party, UNOPS stated that they are far behind on this project.

In this meeting parties further reported on the progress for the opening of new border crossings, Kapi of Sfirca; which links municipality of Kamenica to Medvegja, and Izvor in the northern part.

Lastly, they discussed on the cross-border cooperation of police, customs and other agencies operating at the border between the two countries, particularly to facilitate the movement of Kosovo citizens, who use Serbia as a transit country, especially during the summer season.

The delegation of the Republic of Kosovo led by Minister Edita Tahiri was composed of: Dren Zeka, chief political adviser and coordinator of the issue; Qemajl Marmullakaj, director of the Office of Strategic Planning; Arben Citaku, secretary general of the Ministry Environment and Spatial Planning; Driton Gashi, secretary general of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; Shaban Guda, director of the Border Police; Valdet Gjinovci, head of the Food and Veterinary Agency; and Bekim Krasniqi, coordinator for IBM on Kosovo Customs.