Brnabic: Shutdown of Payment Transactions Key Problem for Normalizing Relations with Kosovo

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic (BetaPhoto/Dragan Gojic)

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Jan. 17 that Pristina’s announced intention to end payment transactions with Serbia proper and abolish the use of the dinar represents a key obstacle not only to further normalization but to the further existence of any kind of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

“If such things are being brought into question. . . then [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti is really putting all his chips on ending the dialogue once and for all,” Brnabic told Prva TV, adding that while she hopes the issue will be resolved “reasonably and rationally” Serbia is certainly looking at “difficult days” ahead.

Addressing the accusations of electoral fraud levied by the opposition and multiple foreign actors, as well as the requests for an international investigation into Serbia’s latest elections, Brnabic stated that the latter would amount to “diminishing or even cancelling the sovereignty of one’s own country.”

According to the prime minister, while the opposition has been celebrating the fact that they “just barely” managed to get the topic of Serbia’s elections added to the agenda of the European Parliament’s Jan. 17 session, the truth is that this topic already underlies much of the discussion going on the EP.