The CBK regulation in effect for three months: Not enough dinars even for medicine, acrobatics needed for the holiday table

Preparation for the Easter holidays for Serbs in Kosovo this year first involved going to Bujanovac, Rudnica, or Raska to withdraw their salaries and pensions because, due to the Central Bank of Kosovo regulation abolishing the use of dinars for the past three months, they cannot access their earnings in a civilized manner. The holiday table will also be different compared to last Easter, as they can no longer find products from Serbia in Kosovo stores. Pristina's ban on importing Serbian goods since June 14, 2023, remains in effect.

Every kilometer traveled to reach money in banks in Serbia entails additional costs, complained citizens from Strpce, Gracanica, Northern Mitrovica... For every kilometer, they have less money left in their wallets for daily life. Not everyone can travel, especially the elderly and the sick.

"There is also a problem with the amount of money circulating in the city. There is less and less money. People cannot buy and pay for something big. There is no merchandise from Serbia, and people who go to withdraw money from the other side of the administrative crossing buy something along the way and bring it back, but these are small quantities. Pensioners are the most vulnerable," said Ljubisa Zubac from the Cultural Center "Dragica Zarkovic" in Northern Mitrovica, speaking to Kosovo online.

Nevenka Nikolcevic from Strpce says there's no money for shopping.

"We don't buy anything anywhere, we don't have dinars or euros, we're waiting for it to come down from God. For 15,000 dinars, I go to Bujanovac to withdraw my pension, that's living at zero," she said angrily, as do her fellow citizens.

The next round of talks between the delegations of Belgrade and Pristina to resolve the problems arising from the CBK regulation enacted at the end of last December, which came into effect on February 1, could be on May 13. After the last round held on April 25, the EU Special Representative for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, announced that he presented a compromise solution for the issue of dinars and that a new meeting would follow after the parties submit their comments.

Belgrade's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovic, stated after the April 25 round that the issue of dinars must be urgently resolved because Serbs in Kosovo are endangered, and the functioning and existence of Serbian institutions vital for their survival are being questioned. He also emphasized that there is no political will on the part of the Pristina authorities to resolve this issue. He confirmed that Belgrade will provide comments on the new ideas presented by Lajcak.

On the other side, Pristina's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, stated at the time that Serbia has "worrying attitudes regarding the transfer of financial resources in dinars from Serbia to Kosovo" and that proposals for creating a new economic entity in northern Kosovo are destructive.

Economist Sasa Djogovic told Kosovo online that he expects the solution to the problem arising from the decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo to abolish payment transactions in dinars will involve licensing the Postanska Stedionica Bank by the Kosovo authorities and then using it for all payments received by Kosovo citizens of Serbian nationality.

He believes that a return to the previous situation is not feasible and that a new solution needs to be found.

"It is inevitable that payments will be made in euros. From the statements of our representatives, I could gather that they are willing to make payments in euros and that there is a readiness to license our Postanska Stedionica Bank by the Kosovo authorities, through which we could then make payments for all entitlements received by our citizens. That will move in that direction, but of course, it's not just an economic factor; there's also a political factor in terms of whether the competencies of the Central Bank of Kosovo are directly or indirectly recognized. However, considering that identity cards, license plates, customs seals have already been recognized, and there's integration in the energy sector, I don't see any significant difference in indirectly recognizing the CBK's jurisdiction through obtaining a license, as this approach caters to citizens of Serbian nationality and makes their lives easier," says Djogovic.

He adds that the focus should be on the population rather than political competition because people have been living in uncertainty for several months, with additional costs and self-organization just to access their money.

Pristina's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, stated that "licensing a Serbian business entity in Kosovo is unacceptable" for Pristina, without specifying whether he meant the Postanska Stedionica Bank, and Djogovic says he doesn't see why licensing the Postanska Stedionica Bank would be unacceptable for Pristina.

"Statements from the Central Bank of Kosovo indicated that if any bank wants to operate in Kosovo, it needs to be licensed, and in that sense, they already sent messages in February towards licensing our Postanska Stedionica Bank. It would be good for Serbia to have its bank in Kosovo, and that bank should gradually expand its operations to other areas of Kosovo as tensions decrease. Because if you have financial influence in Kosovo, it means you can achieve other influences and have other levers of power," Djogovic believes.

Asked how all this will affect institutions registered in the Serbian system, our interlocutor says that this issue should have been resolved before the issue of dinars because now the problems are intertwining.

"I think it was a bad move to start with the unilateral imposition of the decision regarding dinars and not primarily agreeing on whose jurisdiction public institutions would be under. Based on that, a decision could have been made regarding dinars, or the currency of payment. For now, as far as I can see, official Belgrade will certainly make payments to those institutions until another solution is reached. Just as it will make payments for pensioners and social assistance recipients in the same way as Belgrade and Pristina agree. Later on, I believe there will be discussions about where these institutions, health centers, hospitals, post offices, will be integrated, in which system they will continue to operate," says Djogovic.

No one can predict how long it will take for Belgrade and Pristina to reach an agreement at this point, and as one resident of Gracanica says: life must go on.

"We have both Easter and our St. Day, all together. The prices are high, but we have to live," she said.