The Kosovo government announced that the official Belgrade and Pristina reached an agreement on the mutual recognition of certificates of medications, after the notification which both parties gave to the European Union, on accepting the agreement. This agreement for Kosovo side means that drugs that are sent from Serbia to Kosovo, now enter “legally on the market of Kosovo”, but also that Kosovo “is allowed” to export products to the Serbian market. Belgrade claims that the “status-neutral certification of pharmaceutical products was agreed in the Brussels”, created on the model of the earlier agreed phytosanitary and veterinary certificates. This allows registration of the drugs and medical devices in Kosovo Medicines Agency and enables the producers from central Serbia the sale on KiM. ”
Minister for dialogue in Pristina, Edita Tahiri, said that this agreement is important because it allows the normalization of trade of medicinal products between “two countries”, which is achieved through “mutual recognition of certificates of pharmaceutical products (CPP) between the two countries.”
In May, in Brussels was agreed (in principle) mutual recognition of “certificates” for medicines between Kosovo and Serbia. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija then announced that by this agreement “medicines produced in central Serbia can to be sold in the entire territory of Kosovo, for the first time.”
The trade of medicines in the north of Kosovo is currently done through four wholesalers registered in the Kosovo system. However, the wholesalers were not able to import medicines of Serbian producers, because they are not registered with the Kosovo Medicines Agency. Health Centre in Mitrovica North receives drugs and medical devices in the form of humanitarian shipments, which is the only way of supply from central Serbia.
