Abbott on the dinar ban: CBK regulation unilateral and harmful action

British Ambassador to Pristina, Nicholas Abbott, stated last night that he respected the integrity of the Central Bank of Kosovo and its right to enact new regulations but emphasized that he had an issue with the way the regulation, which abolished the dinar, was being implemented.

"The Central Bank of Kosovo is an independent institution, and we fully respect this. Its integrity and the fact that it enacts regulations to bring greater transparency to the financial system, to combat money laundering and counterfeiting. The question lies in the application of the regulation and how it happened, and it happened very quickly," Abbott said for Klan Kosova.

He is aware that the regulation affects part of the population in Kosovo.

"We are focused on the impact on payments coming from Serbia for citizens, social benefits, pensions, as well as for institutions, whether in healthcare or education," Abbott said.

He adds that appropriate explanations to affected citizens have been lacking, adding that the regulation does not touch on Kosovo's sovereignty but rather on the relationship with minority communities.

"To make changes that require regulations, people need to understand what they can do, what might happen, to understand – if they do not have a bank account in euros, how they can obtain one, when their money will be available... That is a significant issue related to the healthcare and education systems that relied on payments from Serbia. No one disputes that. The Government of Kosovo is not proposing to intervene and pay; it is still waiting for Serbia to make these payments," Abbott noted.

He stated that the CBK regulation was a unilateral action by Kosovo and therefore harmful, suggesting that issues related to this regulation would be better managed through the normalization dialogue process.

"This regulation impacts several issues that we would like to see addressed through the normalization process or through dialogue, but we are also concerned that unilateral actions affecting certain elements of communities in Kosovo are genuinely harmful if they are not prepared. A transitional period is needed, and I'm not talking about years, but months," Abbott said.

He stated that if something similar were to happen in the UK, the impact on communities would first be considered, ensuring all affected parties were taken into account.

"I fear that this has not happened here, so we are calling for a much longer transitional period," Abbott said.