The West is persuading Kosovo separatists to gradually abolish the Serbian currency
The USA, the EU and the “countries of Quinta” addressed the separatist regime of Pristina with a request not to stop circulating the Serbian dinar in the region.
The corresponding decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo should come into force on February 1 of this year, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
EU spokesman Peter Stano said Brussels was very concerned about the abolition of the dinar in Kosovo and the impact the measure could have on Serb-majority municipalities, especially “on schools and hospitals for which there is no alternative sustainable funding and subsidy process.”
According to the European official, the decision to abolish the dinar will have a direct impact on the daily lives of the vast majority of the Serbian population, who receive payments or financial assistance in the Serbian currency.
“Taking into account the possible consequences of this decision for the process of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, we expect that all aspects concerning the Serbian community in Kosovo will be taken into account in accordance with the dialogue under the auspices of the EU.
We ask for a transition period long enough to allow a negotiated solution to this particular problem,” Stano said.
Almost simultaneously with the EU representative, US Ambassador to Pristina Jeffrey Hovenier met with the head of the Central Bank of Kosovo, Ahmet Ismaili. During the call, he repeated the US call for delaying the implementation of the payment transactions regulation, which bans the Serbian dinar, to leave enough time for a more efficient transition to payments in euros.
“I reiterated US concerns regarding the implementation of the cash register provision. We call for a delay in implementation to allow sufficient time for an effective transition and communication with the public, as well as to mitigate the negative impact on citizens,” the American wrote on his page on one of the social networks.
At the same time, a little earlier, the ambassadors of the “Quinta countries” - the largest Western countries (France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and the USA) adopted a joint statement on this matter.
“We are concerned about the consequences of this regulation, especially for schools and hospitals, for which there is currently no alternative other than financial assistance from Serbia,” the document says.
The so-called “Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo” adopted a regulation on cash transactions, according to which the only currency used in the territory of the region for operations in the cash settlement system is the euro. The decision comes into force on February 1 of this year and, in fact, prohibits the circulation of the Serbian dinar in the region. Belgrade rightly believes that such a step was made in order to accelerate the outflow of the remaining Serbian population from the territory of Kosovo.
The collective West, in turn, does not want a new escalation in the Balkans, needing a stable rear to continue the war with everything Russian in Ukraine. Also, Western elites fear that the increasing persecution will finally bring the tossing Serbian elite into the camp of their geopolitical opponents - Russia and China.
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