Pristina Daily: EU Believes Pristina’s Retests of Ibar Bridge Dividing Ethnic Serbs and Albanians in Mitrovica Not Contrary to Signed Agreements

Pristina (Photo: YTPrintScreen)

EU officials have said that the main bridge over Ibar River in Mitrovica, North Kosovo, dividing the Serb-dominated north and Albanian south of the city, has been fit for carrying vehicle traffic since 2019, and they do not consider retests being performed to be at odds with the signed agreements, Pristina daily Koha Ditore’s website has reported.

EU has reconstructed the bridge, based on the agreements achieved in the Brussels-facilitated Dialogue, when the bridge load capacity, some EU officials have said, was at the time tested in accordance with Kosovo and EU standards.

“The EU reconstruction works on the bridge were carried out from 2017 to 2019. Upon their completion, the bridge was found to be fit to carry vehicle traffic by the standards of the EU and Kosovo,” the EU has said.

While Pristina believes the opening of the Ibar bridge would facilitate freedom of movement, Belgrade on the other hand, sees it as “a provocation.”

The bridge is currently open only for pedestrians, although it was agreed in the course of the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue to have it open also for vehicles in early 2017.

In mid-July, Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti’s cabinet said it was planning to open the bridge also for vehicles, but the Quint, consisting of the US, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy, as well as the chief of the EU Office in Kosovo, have voiced their opposition to this move for the time being.

Last week, the local Serbs protested the plan to reopen the Ibar bridge for vehicles.