US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Gabriel Escobar said the main reason for his visit to Pristina is to emphasize that there is no alternative to the European Union (EU)-facilitated Dialogue with Serbia and to discuss ways of finding a solution to Pristina’s uncoordinated decision to ban the dinar.

Escobar, who is currently in Brussels and will visit Pristina on Wednesday, told an online media conference that the US does not oppose the legitimacy of the decision, but rather the implementation of the Central Bank of Kosovo’s (CBK) regulation on banning the dinar.

The US official said the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue is at a critical stage, and called on both sides to honor and implement their agreements, and avoid unilateral provocations that could create new tensions.

Escobar said he had meetings with EU and NATO representatives, including EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

Regarding the implementation of the CBK and the difficulties Kosovo citizens who receive payments from Serbia are faced with, Escobar called on the Kosovo government to take into account the concerns of the international community.

He explained that the reason why the international community is opposing the implementation of the CBK decision is the fact that Kosovo wants to introduce the euro as the sole legal currency in less than three weeks, while it took France almost a year to do this, and that no alternative has been offered to the people who depend on these dinar payments.

Kosovo needs to work with the international community to find a solution for this catastrophic decision that creates chaos in the economy of Kosovo, said Escobar.

He noted that the US would like to see progress on all dialogue issues, but that, by ignoring the dialogue, Kosovo is also ignoring its European partners.

Escobar said the US wants for Serbia and Kosovo to be productive members of the Euro-Atlantic structures, to have peaceful and predictable relations, and that the path to this is through the EU-facilitated dialogue.

The US official stressed that the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM) remains a priority, and added that there would be no problems with the dinar if this had been done.