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Vetevendosje (VV) leader Albin Kurti will soon take over the post of head of the Kosovo Government. And with his coming to the top of the state, there seem to be big changes in Kosovo.
There is also a change expected in the money currently used by Kosovo citizens.
Kurti is claiming that with his coming to power Kosovo will abandon the Euro and use the Albanian Lek as a currency.
Albin Kurti, who currently runs Vetevendosje, the party that won the October elections, said in a public statement days ago that if he comes to power, he aims to make the Lek a currency of Kosovo, same as Albania.
Kurti, however, seemed skeptical when answering this question. He stated that although they had the intention and desire, "it could not be said that it was a priority".
However, Vetevendosje also expressed in its program the intention to replace the Euro with the Lek as the official currency of the Republic of Kosovo.
Albin Kurti had also spoken about Lek during his time in office, saying that perhaps Kosovo would be better off using the Lek as a state currency, rather than the euro it currently uses.
"We must be aware that the European Union can at any moment suspend us the right to use the euro. Of course, this is a very unlikely hypothesis, but we must bear in mind because we have no possession of this currency ... Maybe it would be safer to use the Albanian Lek," Kurti said in an interview with the French portal Politique-Internationale.
But Kurti's idea for the Lek is not that they have discussed specifically in the Democratic League of Kosovo, which is also negotiating the formation of the Government of Kosovo.
Democratic League of Kosovo MP Lumir Abdixhiku spoke recently about Kurti's idea of the Lek currency in Kosovo.
He has said that nothing can be done beyond what is stated in the Constitution.
“We have not talked specifically about this point. We have spoken that our agreement with VV should be based on the Constitution of Kosovo. So we start with what this constitution allows. There can be no other currency in Kosovo because the Constitution does not allow this. We have the euro currency in Kosovo and I believe that there will be no benefit if doubts are raised,” he said.
The Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK) refused to talk about this issue at all. No one answered the questions sent to this institution.
And its official website shows that the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo is responsible for ensuring a proper supply of Kosovo with euro banknotes and coins, to conduct cash transactions in the economy.
"Since the euro is the main currency allowed for use in Kosovo, the responsibilities of the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo related to cash operations and management relate to the euro."
The CBK shows that the first euro contingent (about 100 million Euros) was brought to Kosovo in December 2001. During December 2001 - January / February 2002, over 1 billion German Marks were exported, and over 350 million Euros were imported. At the same time, about 10 million German Marks were repatriated, and about 7 million Euro were imported, which logistically reflected a currency transfer operation weighing over 100 tons.