Kosovo delays implementation of dinar ban amid Western concerns

Kosovo’s government postpones the implementation of a ban on the Serbian dinar, after concerns from European governments.

In an attempt to silence concerns expressed by many European governments, the government of Kosovo announced on Wednesday that it would postpone the implementation of the ban on the use of the Serbian dinar until some time later. The new ban, originally set to start on Thursday, had sparked fears of further fueling tensions with the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo.

The Serbs living in Kosovo are numbering around 120,000 people and they have been using the dinar since the late-1990s conflict between Serbia and ethnic Albanian insurgents which resulted in the withdrawal of Serbian troops and government personnel from the region.

Just one day before the restriction was supposed to be put into practice, Kosovo’s deputy prime minister, Besnik Bislimi, during a press conference disclosed that the government would delay the immediate actions against the dinar. Bislimi stressed the intention to educate Serbian citizens on the ban, and thus, a transitional period to be implemented to minimize the disturbances.

Bislimi repeated that “the only official currency remains the euro” in Kosovo and requested a “line of communication” between the central banks of Kosovo and Serbia to be established.

This came after a stalled morning of mixed signals, where Bashkim Nurboja, chairman of the board of the Central Bank of Kosovo, had hinted earlier, at a possible postponement. This uncertainty resulted in the shutdown of several banks in Serb communities in northern Kosovo.

Source: AFP