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€uro, the currency of peace? It is complicated – much more than just a Facebook status.
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eople usually link the €uro to the European Member States, but the common currency is also used abroad, solving problems while outside the EU yet triggering them when inside, such as nationalistic revivals.
Montenegro the euro symbolizes more closeness to members of the EU, “it connects us with some other European countries. It facilitates our international trade. Also it is much easier to travel now because you do not have to change money in some other currency”. Luka Veljovic, 17 years old, But Montenegro was not the only says he no longer remembers the country where the €uro was imold national currency: “My parents plemented after the breakup of told me that when they used marks, Yugoslavia and the Balkans war. two marks were like one euro”. Hard math for the then 7 year old Kosovo, a region under NATO Luka when the currency was in- protection, also uses the €uro troduced in Montenegro. as official currency on its territory, but in this case it is more Like other youngsters from “complicated” says Zana Cana, European flag (Photo by EBS)
By Sofia Trindade a 21 year old Kosovar student. “Before the establishment of UNMIK [the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo], Kosovo (as part of Serbia) was bound to the Yugoslav monetary policy. War-time, inflation and tensions with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had severely discredited the Yugoslav Dinar in Kosovo. In the immediate post-conflict period, people of Kosovo preferred to use and hoard foreign currencies instead of relying on the Dinar. The most frequently used foreign currency was the German Mark”, explains the sociology student. ST
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