The ambassador of Germany, Jorn Rohde and the ambassador of France, Olivier Guerot, have recently declared about the opening of the Ibri bridge that separates Mitrovica from the south to the north. Rohde said bridges connect people as he added that politicians should work for citizens to enjoy the city.
Further, the German ambassador in an interview for RTK said that there are homework that must be done in order to open this bridge.
“The symbolism of this bridge that we see on the left and right side, I see policemen and checkpoints. So it can be seen that there are homework that must be done and this bridge must connect people and not divide people because bridges are for connecting people”, said Rohde.
Rohde also mentioned the visit of the foreign minister of Germany to the Ibri bridge two years ago. He said that there were promises that this bridge would be opened even then.
“Bridges connect people. Politicians, society must work hard so that the people in Mitrovica in the north and in the south can simply enjoy the city, as we have done in the past and my foreign minister was here two years ago, talked with the mayors of municipalities and those promises have been made, but the roadblocks have not been removed yet. Politicians should do this and work in this direction”, he said.
Meanwhile, the ambassador of France, Olivier Guerot, said that he wishes that there would be a cafeteria and more flowers on the Ibri bridge.
“Regarding this bridge, the French troops at a certain moment stopped the extremists from both sides, not allowing them to go to the other side and to make sure that the situation does not get worse and many of our soldiers have been wounded in those operations before. We got to see a bit of the future. What I see, we have a pedestrian section here, then the bridge that is pedestrian on all sides. I just want to see more cafes or flowers and connect these two small pedestrian areas in the most peaceful way possible, and I believe that this is the final destination of the bridge,” said Guerot.
On the agenda of the Government of Kosovo, as far as the north of Kosovo is concerned, it seems that the opening of the Ibri Bridge for the traffic of cars is also included. This warning came from the number two of the Kosovo Police, Veton Elshani, and from the Assemblymen of the VV in the Northern Municipality of Mitrovica, which is led by Erden Atiq of the VV.
The European Union has reacted by saying that the decision to open the Ibri Bridge should be taken within the dialogue facilitated by the EU in Brussels. KFOR has repeated the same position today.
But what is the history of the Ibri Bridge and the agreements that have been signed for the opening to traffic and that are not being implemented yet.
In 2014, a plan was drawn up by the EU to open the Ibri Bridge to traffic with several elements. According to that plan, compliance with the Law of Kosovo, the realization of the technical evaluation of the static structure of the Ibri Bridge by the EU and the drafting of a project for the revitalization of the Bridge were required.
In March 2015, in order to achieve this goal, the so-called “Peace Park” was removed and several concrete barricades were placed in its place, which again continued to hinder free movement.
In August 2015, Kosovo and Serbia had reached an agreement on the opening of the Ibri bridge, which initially provided for the closure of both sides of the bridge with fixed barriers and construction sites until October 15, 2015. According to this agreement, it was foreseen that the bridge would be opened for traffic no later than the end of June 2016.
In addition, the revitalization of the main street “Mbreti Petar” in a pedestrian zone was also planned until the end of June 2016.
Also provided is the definition of the maps of the administrative boundaries of the cadastral areas in Suhodoll and Kroi i Vitaku through a Memorandum of Understanding between the relevant ministries and the two municipalities of Mitrovica.
However, despite this agreement, the revitalization was not completed until June 2016.
In order to make progress, on August 5, 2016, Kosovo and Serbia agreed on an implementation plan to solve the problem of revitalizing the Ibri Bridge.
According to this plan, Kosovo and Serbia had agreed to revitalize the bridge and “King Petar” road by August 14, 2016, and to open the bridge to all traffic on January 20, 2017, and also to commit to the previous conclusions on the determination of the administrative borders between Southern and Northern Mitrovica until October 14, 2016.
Despite all these agreements, the main bridge has not been opened for all traffic and continues to be a topic that is causing confusion for Kosovo and the EU even after 8 years.
