Thewesternbalkans
The Kosovo police have closed the vault of the Savings Bank of the Post of Serbia and its five other offices in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, which are inhabited by a majority of Serbs, in line with the decision on the ban of the use of the Serbian dinar currency in the country.
According to the Kosovo authorities the action was carried out following the reports of the financial monitoring institutions, such as the financial intelligence unit and the Central Bank of Kosovo, together with the Tax Administration of Kosovo.
Starting on February 1, the government required areas dominated by the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo to adopt the euro currency, which is used in the rest of the country, and abolished the use of the Serbian dinar.
Priština postponed the move for about three months, following pressure from the European Union and the United States, concerned that the decision would negatively impact the ethnic Serb minority in northern Kosovo.
The Central Bank of Kosovo said on May 13 that after the end of the transitional period, it licensed eight branches of financial institutions in municipalities with a Serbian majority, in Leposavić, Zveçan, Graçanicë, Shtërpcë and one in Shillovo in Gjilan.
The US Department of State, the EU and the OSCE expressed disappointment over the action of the Kosovo police saying that “this action was not coordinated with international partners” and that it “escalates tensions and it undermines Kosovo’s good faith in achieving normalization of relations through the Dialogue”.
Comment: This development comes amidst heightened tensions, following seven unsuccessful rounds of talks in Brussels to resolve the currency dispute. The police action occurred 10 days after the expiration of a three-month transition period for Kosovo’s regulation mandating the euro as the sole official currency.
Оn the other hand, this can be considered as a response to the postponement of the vote on the Kosovo’s admission to the Council of Europe. Despite the positive vote of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on April 24, which proposed to the Parliamentary Assembly to approve Kosovo’s candidacy for membership and the also positive opinion of PACE but followed by a series of talks between the Serbian president Vučić and the European leaders, the vote was postponed.
