Selakovic: The CBK regulation on the dinar could jeopardize the functioning of Serbs' lives

Coordinator of the National Convention on the EU, Bojana Selakovic, says that if the regulation of the Central Bank of Kosovo on the abolition of the dinar in payment transactions in Kosovo is postponed, Pristina can always use it depending on how it assesses the situation.

Selakovic emphasizes to Kosovo Online that if the regulation comes into force, it certainly represents a unilateral act that changes the dynamics in the dialogue. As she explains, this has not been a topic in the dialogue so far, that is, it has not been in the corpus of topics negotiated in the process leading to the normalization of relations.

According to her, such a regulation, if it comes into force, can jeopardize the normal functioning of Serbs' livelihoods on a daily basis and can certainly be one of the reasons that might initiate further migrations from northern Kosovo.

"Whether it will happen depends on how Belgrade reacts," she adds, stating that it depends on whether there will be any possibility for the inflow of money from Serbia in a form acceptable to the Kosovo Government and how willing Belgrade will be to engage in facilitating people's lives and the possibility of staying to live there.

On the question of whether Pristina can use such a regulation, in case its implementation is now postponed, as a kind of constant threat to the Serbs in Kosovo, Selakovic says that once again it shows the consequences of the entire process of dialogue and everything happening between Belgrade and Pristina, including EU and US communication, being conducted in a narrow circle, non-transparently, without the adequate participation and informing of some other actors.

"For this reason, for several months now, whenever there is a critical situation, we have to speculate about what really happened, who talked to whom, and then receive indirect information from the Prime Minister of Albania about what is actually happening, or read some articles on portals outside of Serbia and Kosovo to find out what the reality is. It is clear that such a move opens up a new maneuvering space, whatever the decision may be, and demonstrates the positions of both sides, especially at a moment that is now a crucial period before it is possible to secure some attention from international actors," our interlocutor states.

Selakovic recalls that the EU Envoy for the Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajcak, himself, said yesterday that the attention of the international community would very soon shift from what was happening in the Belgrade-Pristina relationship, considering the upcoming European elections, and then the American ones, which could bring a new dynamic based on the result.

"I believe that this is such a move and that at any time later, depending on what the assessment of the authorities in Pristina is, it can be exploited, like everything that happens in relation to the dialogue, which are life issues for the Serbs living in Kosovo and which are used in Serbia and Kosovo for internal needs, based on which the political positions of those in power are built. In any case, it leaves a bitter taste when viewed from the perspective of ordinary people living in the north, who obviously, once again, are shown to represent only one kind of ping-pong ball in the Belgrade-Pristina relationship. What is very discouraging is that we receive information that the possibility of making such a decision has been known for some time. There have been certain announcements for several months, and it seems to me that those who lead the dialogue in Belgrade did not take such a possibility seriously, and in this way, they find themselves in a situation where now, literally a day before such a decision will take effect or not, they do not have a ready package of activities that would be communicated to the citizens of Serbian nationality who will bear the burden of that decision in an atmosphere of a unilateral and surprising decision, to which no one pointed out how they could prepare," Selakovic said.