Yesterday, officials of the Kosovo Customs and Kosovo Police confiscated machines owned by Belgrade company ‘Magistrala’, which maintains and cleans around 80 kilometers of roads in northern Kosovo. They confiscated five trucks, a snow plow truck and a vehicle. On the eve of the next round of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels this information has created additional turmoil.

Officials explained that the confiscations were carried out because some fifteen employees of the company were operating in line with direction from the Serbian authorities, and added that the vehicles were operating with Belgrade registration plates. Official procedure stipulates that the company should have registered and obtained a license for operating in Kosovo and paid all the taxes, and as long as the company fails to do so, the maintenance and cleaning of roads in northern Kosovo will be carried out by Kosovo based companies. The paper further states that procedure in the case of Serb-majority settlements has not yet been finalized, as the issue was supposed to be addressed only after the creation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities.