Hand over BQ: Post three months' decision on dinar

The news has been broadcast by the CEC through a media communique, which is said to have drafted a new plan for facilitated implementation of regulation effects for cash operations in specific communities.

Additional operations, which are expected to be realised in the short term but no longer than three (3) months, in co-operation with other financial banks and institutions”, are said by the CEC.

In English and with a vague description, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said there will be no punitive measures for those who do not respect the Kosovo Central Bank's decision to ban the dinar for payment.

Kosovo's “government, within its competencies, will not pronounce punitive measures during the transition period and calls on other (institutional) pillars to take the same stance”, Kurti wrote.

At the end of his announcement, he said that they are in the process of some other information, but without telling what information they are about, what they are worth about this situation and what exactly happens after they obtain that information in their fullness.

On the other hand, although they may continue to use the dinar, Kosovo Serbs have staged protests against the CEC decision.

They have protested in northern Mitrovica at the invitation of Serb pensioners, but that the protest has joined all Kosovo Serb political parties.

On February 1st, the new Central Bank regulator went into effect Kosovo (BQK), through which the circulation of the Serbian dinar is intended to be banned, specifying that the only currency allowed for payment/transaction is euro.

In Serb-run areas inhabited by the majority in Kosovo, besides Euro currency, the dinar has so far been used under the parallel system financed by Serbia.

In the four municipalities in the northern part of Kosovo, northern Mitrovica, Leposaviq, Zvecan and Zubin Potok have been marked by dinars.

In recent years the importation of dinars from Serbia has also been practiced, but on February 1st of this year, this practice has stopped, prompting the reaction of Serbian authorities and the international organised community.

The European Union (BE) and the United States of America (SHBA) accused the Government of Kosovo that through “unilateral moves” is promoting unnecessary “tensions” in the northern part of the country inhabited by ethnic Serbs, while demanding that the implementation of the BEC regulation be delayed under the argument that it could have a negative impact on the Serb community in Kosovo.