Kosovo recognises CE marking in its own law, but Turkish industrial goods do not yet enter duty free. Most exporters assume the reverse. Law No. 06/L-033 on Construction Products, Article 9(2), provides that the CE marking is affixed to construction products for which the manufacturer has drawn up a Declaration of Performance by applying a harmonised European Standard or European Assessment Document. Meanwhile the Türkiye-Kosovo Free Trade Agreement, in force since 1 September 2019, phases Kosovo’s elimination of duties on listed industrial goods over nine years – so the tariff line still has to be checked rather than assumed.
Artay Lighting has cast aluminium in its own die-cast foundry in Istanbul since 1999 and exports to more than 33 countries. This page sets out what is established in Kosovo, what we could not verify, and what that means for a bid.
How does conformity work in Kosovo?
Two marks exist side by side, and the law separates them cleanly. Under Article 9(2) of Law No. 06/L-033, CE marking applies where the product is covered by a harmonised European Standard or a European Assessment Document and the manufacturer has drawn up a Declaration of Performance. Under Article 10(2), the Kosovo conformity marking may only be affixed where a harmonised Kosovo Standard or a Kosovo Assessment Document is applied. Article 5(1) requires a Declaration of Performance wherever a product is covered by a Kosovo or European harmonised standard.
Because EN 40-5 is a harmonised European standard, a CE-marked steel lighting column with a Declaration of Performance sits squarely inside the route Article 9(2) describes. That is the cleanest conformity position of the four Balkan markets in this series – cleaner than Serbia, where a domestic mark runs in parallel for products under national specifications.
Labelling has to be in Kosovo’s two official languages, Albanian and Serbian; additional languages are permitted.
Which standards does Kosovo publish, and what could we not confirm?
The standards body is AKS, the Kosovo Agency for Standardization, within the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade. European standards are adopted under the SK EN prefix, and ISO-derived European standards under SK EN ISO.
Here we have to be straight about a limit. We could not confirm that SK EN 40, SK EN 13201 or SK EN ISO 1461 exist. At the time of writing the AKS catalogue is unavailable – every address under its domain redirects to a government portal showing an update notice – so the designations could not be checked against a live source. We are not going to invent a standard number. If a Kosovo tender asks for a national designation for lighting columns, ask the contracting authority to supply it, and quote EN 40 with CE marking under Article 9(2) in the meantime.
We also could not confirm whether AKS holds CEN-CENELEC affiliate or companion status, so the argument that European standards are automatically adopted – which does hold for Serbia as a full CEN member – cannot be extended to Kosovo.
What does the free trade agreement actually give you, and when?
The Türkiye-Kosovo Free Trade Agreement was signed in Ankara on 27 September 2013 and entered into force on 1 September 2019. Kosovo eliminates customs duties on the industrial goods listed in Annex II.2 over nine years from entry into force – a schedule running to roughly 2028, not an immediate zero. Which staging category applies to a lighting column depends on its tariff heading, and we did not verify that line.
The practical instruction is therefore short: do not quote a Kosovo project on the assumption of duty-free entry. Ask the customs broker for the current rate against the specific heading and the FTA staging category, in writing, before the price is fixed. This is the single most common costly assumption in this market, and it is entirely avoidable.
Rules of origin sit in Annex II.1. We could not confirm which proof-of-origin form the agreement uses, so have the forwarder name it against that annex rather than defaulting to A.TR, which is a customs-union instrument and does not apply here. CEFTA is likewise not the route from Türkiye – Kosovo participates in CEFTA 2006, but Türkiye is not a party, so CEFTA governs onward regional movement rather than the arriving shipment.
How are Kosovo lighting tenders published?
Through e-Prokurimi at e-prokurimi.rks-gov.net, operated by the Regulatory Commission for Public Procurement under Public Procurement Law No. 04/L-042. The platform interface is available in Albanian, Serbian and English, which is unusually accessible for this region; tender documents themselves are in practice primarily Albanian, sometimes Serbian.
What can Artay supply for a Kosovo project?
Hot-dip galvanized steel poles to EN ISO 1461, up to 12 m, fabricated to the EN 40 series and verified by calculation under EN 40-3-3; and cast aluminium poles, bollards and luminaire housings from our own foundry in Başakşehir, Istanbul, in EN AC-46000 (AlSi9Cu3) alloy with chromate pre-treatment before electrostatic powder coating. Luminaires are CE marked, and manufacturing is certified to TSE under TS EN 40 for lighting columns and to ISO 9001 for quality management. Ask for the certificate together with its scope – a certificate covering luminaires does not cover columns.
Kosovo is an inland, continental market, so the coating question is not a coastal one. Where de-icing salt is used on a road, the lowest metre of a pole and its base flange see chloride in traffic spray and stay damp longest; a flange plate on a raised plinth that drains does most of the work. The mechanism is the same one set out in the coastal lighting poles guide, in a different setting.
We do not make high-mast poles, and we buy in extruded aluminium profile rather than extruding it ourselves, as most of this market does. What we do make from nothing is a form: a municipality can have a pole of its own, carrying its own emblem in the base. A new die is cut in our own tool shop in four to six weeks and a first delivery follows seven to nine weeks after drawing approval; repeat orders on that die ship in three weeks. Changing only height, diameter, wall thickness, arm length or RAL colour needs no die at all and carries no minimum order.
Send a drawing, a tender specification or a written requirement to info@artaylighting.com and we will return a technical drawing, a wind-load calculation and a delivery date.
Related guides
- Lighting poles for Serbia – SRPS EN designations, and a domestic mark running alongside CE.
- Street lighting pole types – the four families, and how a galvanized steel pole is made.
- What drives the cost of a lighting pole – where the money goes, and why unit prices are not published.
- Lighting pole materials – galvanized steel, cast aluminium and extruded profile compared.
- OEM and private label manufacturing – tooling cost, minimum order and lead times in writing.