The Kosovo Police is carrying out raids on several financial institutions in the north of the country, while it has announced that it has already closed 6 of them.
Regular police officers and not special ones are seen to have been engaged in this operation.
In Zveçan, while the Police are carrying out the action, several members of the European Union Mission for the Rule of Law in Kosovo (EULEX) have been seen outside.
The police said that “this police operation is being carried out in cooperation and coordination with the relevant institutions of Kosovo and the justice bodies, this action which has so far passed without any problems or incidents”.
“The purpose of the police operation is to establish order and legality, where with the authorization of the competent prosecutor, six units of the so-called illegal postal savings bank in the north of the country have been closed,” the announcement states.
A week ago, the Central Bank of Kosovo has announced that it has concluded the three-month transitional period for the simplified implementation of the regulation on cash operations, which aims to remove the Serbian dinar as a means of payment in the country.
Now that the euro is considered the only valid currency for transactions in Kosovo, the CBK regulation foresees penalties for those who use the Serbian dinar as a means of payment.
The CBK has said that during the transitional period it has licensed eight branches of financial institutions in municipalities with a Serbian majority, in Leposaviq, Zveçan, Graçanicë, Shtërpcë and one in Shillovë of Gjilan.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti said a week ago that the CBK “clarified that the goal is legality, transparency and not punishment and punishment”.
The issue of the dinar has faced the Government of Kosovo with the opposition of the international community, which has requested the suspension of the implementation of the new CBK regulation.
Chief negotiators Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkovic have met several times in Brussels, in an unsuccessful attempt to find a solution to this issue.