Three-way meeting for dinar in Brussels begins

Unlike last week's meeting, when Lajcak first held separate meetings with Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, and Serbia's Petar Petkov, at today's meeting he met them immediately at a trilateral meeting.

Today's meeting is the continuation of last week's meeting, when both sides agreed to propose a solution to the dinar issue.

They are expected to discuss each side's proposals during this meeting today.

The use of the dinar for cash payments in Kosovo was banned on 1 February, when the Kosovo Central Bank enacted a new regulation, which defined the euro as the only official currency in the country.

The issue, except that it angered Serbia, sparked differences even between the Government of Kosovo and the international community, as the Serb community in Kosovo has for years received payment in dinars from Serbia's budget.

Western diplomats urged Kosovo to suspend the regulation, to give affected citizens time to adapt to the new practice.

In an interview The REL last week, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, said no proposals for the dinar that are contrary to the BEC regulation will be accepted.

EU spokesman Peter Stano said after the meeting last week he expects at the March 25th meeting to continue discussions on finding a solution to the Serbian dinar issue.

Stano said last week's meeting “was important to sort out the facts and to clarify some” issues.

The “Piles agreed to continue discussions on the issue on Monday on March 25th, in order to discuss concrete proposals and find a short-term solution”, he added.

This was the first time Kosovo government officials participated in such talks since the BEC's regulation entered into force.

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