Balkan | The ban on the Serbian dinar in Kosovo is fueling tensions, fear the US and the EU

in the Balkans The decision by the Kosovo parliament to ban the use of the Serbian dinar, which is favored by the region's Serb minority, raises fears of an escalation of tensions in the region.

Kosovo started its steep line of prohibition without the support of the international community. of The Guardian according to both the United States and the EU have criticized the decision that came into effect last week, which is feared to exacerbate already difficult ethnic tensions.

“These steps are worrying because they do not contribute to the de-escalation of tensions,” commented the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell According to The Guardian.

“They are not coordinated but have been taken unilaterally without prior consultation in order to prevent negative effects.”

International the pressure appeared to persuade the Kosovo government to soften its line just hours before the ban took effect last week, reported AFP. Kosovo announced a transition period for the Serbs, the exact length of which was not specified.

“We will not introduce punitive measures immediately, but will take time to inform our Serbian citizens,” the Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislim told a press conference.

The sudden change of line caused confusion in the Serbian residential areas, where several banks suspended their operations due to the ambiguities. Because of the bank closure, many people have to go to the bank on the other side of the border in Serbia, locals estimate.

“They are fooling around with us. Nobody tells us anything. I'm up to my throat full of politics,” complained a Serbian resident of the city of Mitrovica to an AFP reporter Zoran Ilic45.

Following the formal entry into force of the currency exchange order, the Kosovo Ministry of Interior ordered police raids on four different organizations operating in Serb minority areas. EU condemned heavy-handed police action at the weekend.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić vowed on Friday that the country would continue to fund the Serbs in the Kosovo region, reported news agency AFP. In his televised speech on Friday, Vučić accused the Kosovo administration of persecuting the Serb minority.

A large part of the Kosovo Serb population works for Serbian organizations, from which they receive their salaries in dinars. Many Serbs in the region also receive their pensions in dinars.

Kosovo's Serb minority of around 120,000 people has stuck to the dinar as its currency since the Kosovo war in the late 1990s. At that time, Serbian forces and authorities withdrew from Kosovo to make way for ethnic Albanian forces.

Albanian majority controlled Kosovo adopted the euro in 2002, even though it is not an EU member state or part of the Eurozone. Kosovo had not even declared independence at that time.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and Finland was among the first to recognize its independence. So far, Kosovo's independence has been recognized by slightly more than half of the UN member states.

Kosovo has not been recognized as an independent state by Serbia and not even by all EU countries, although Kosovo has been granted the status of a possible EU candidate country.

The currency dispute is part of a long continuum of bureaucratic disputes between Serbia and Kosovo, which are the subject of bitter hand-wringing. There have been disputes in the past, for example, about car license plates.