Kosovo Police fined Lazar Djordjevic for driving with authorization while awareness campaign still underway

Kosovo Police fined Lazar Djordjevic last night in the village of Koretin, municipality of Kamenica, for driving a car with authorization, even though—according to a statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs—an information campaign on the enforcement of the Law on Foreigners and on the use of vehicles with Serbian license plates driven under authorization is still underway and will last until 15 January next year.

In his statement to Kosovo Online, Lazar Djordjevic explained that the police officers spoke Albanian and, when he asked why he was being fined, they replied that they did not understand what he was saying.

“They stopped me and asked for my documents. They spoke in Albanian, and I couldn’t understand them. I had the authorization—the car belongs to my brother who lives in Aleksinac. I have Kosovo documents. When I asked why they were writing a ticket, they said they didn’t understand me, even though they are required to speak Serbian since it’s the second official language,” said Djordjevic.

He added that the citation stated he had driven the vehicle without the owner present, although he had shown them the authorization.

“There were two young police officers. That’s how it is with them—they just write tickets. They wrote that I was driving without the owner, but I have authorization. I clearly explained that the regulation hasn’t entered into force yet, that the deadline was extended until 15 January. I went to the Kamenica Police Station and submitted the authorization; we’ll see what happens,” Djordjevic said.

The Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs had previously announced that from 1 November 2025 to 15 January 2026, it would conduct an intensive public information campaign for “all residents of Kosovo and foreigners with temporary or permanent residence in Kosovo,” focusing on informing citizens about the conditions for participating in traffic on the territory of Kosovo.

Deputy Director of Kosovo Police for the North Region, Veton Elshani, told Kosovo Online that during this period—from 1 November to 15 January—no fines will be issued.