Petkovic's Bislimi meet in Brussels today, talks on dinar continue

Kosovo and Serbia's chief negotiators, Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkovovic, are expected to meet tomorrow in Brussels with the mediation of European Union Special Envoy for Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia Miroslav Lajcak

The EU's emissary for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Lajcak announced this on 19 March after meeting the top negotiators at the European helm.

Lajcak, in a post on the “X” platform, announced that among the topics discussed at the meeting was the Kosovo Central Bank's cash payment regulator.

At the last meeting that the two countries' chief negotiators held under Lajcak's auspices in Brussels over tensions that flared up following Central Bank regulation (BQK), through which Kosovo authorities aim to stop using the Serbian dinar within the territory, the parties agreed that by 22 March to deliver proposals for resolving the dinar crisis.

Still, it is not known whether the parties have respected the deadlines. The Kosovo executive has not been disclosed whether they have submitted proposals for the dinar, clinging to the BEC's 10-point plan that allows a transitional phase 50 will last no more than three months so that citizens of the Serbian community will not be harmed by implementing the decision.

While the chief of the Kosovo delegation announced that the parties should submit their proposals on the issue of banning the Serbian dinar, the chief of the Serbian delegation stressed that he insisted on establishing the Serbian Major Commission Association <x01> in Kosovo, because, according to him, this mechanism would solve the funding issue of all “institutions.

Lajcak initially hosted Kosovo's chief negotiator and deputy prime minister at the meeting, then held a meeting with the Serbian delegation led by Petkovic. And this new cycle of negotiations at the level of chief negotiators came amid European officials' warnings of increasing pressure on both sides to implement the agreement reached a year ago.

“I expected the two chief negotiators to discuss implementing the agreement on the road to normalisation and other issues, including the impact of the decision on cash operations. We agreed to continue this issue next Monday, while the agreement will have to be addressed by leaders”, Lajcak said after meetings lasting several hours.

In fact, this was the second meeting that was organised by the EU on the dinar issue. A round of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia financial experts took place on 27 February at the European helm, but ended without concrete results. Kosovo refused to be represented on the political level because it considered that the dinar should not be the subject of the dialogue process.

However, as far as proposals about resolving the problem were concerned, Kosovo authorities, except to reject the United States proposal of the United States of America (SHBA), underlined that they did not go beyond what has already been adopted. Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti guaranteed this week that he would not accept proposals that come out of the CEC's regulatory framework.

Look, it's an ongoing process and the proposal has, some. But there are no proposals that are accepted by us that go contrary to the new BEC regulation. At the same time, we can only deal with the share of support on the ground if there are problems, because the problems that can be caused, not necessarily, can solve all of them.

On the other hand, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vucic, in a recent television presentation, argued that no agreement can be reached on the issue of using Serbian currency in Kosovo, but that Serbia will always find a way to send dinars to Serbs, until it accused Kosovo authorities of implementing through force of the BEC decision.

“won't be easy, first of all for our people in Kosovo. But there will be changes in our doctrine and approach. We will not be brought before a completed act, and we are told that they have agreed to pay here, then pay back there, and then convert from dollars to euros, and from euro to other”, the Serbian president warned at the weekend.

And while the scope of great research for “the resolution display is expected to continue, it remains to be seen whether the list of violent scenarios that could result from the question of the existing dinar and tensions or the by - products of “maniciatism” will be expanded, or a compromise will be reached under dialogue for normalisation of relations.