Politics & Power Quote by Ibrahim Rugova

Rugova is selling a coin as a constitution. In the late-1990s rubble of postwar Kosovo, "the EURO as a currency" isn’t a technocratic footnote; it’s a sovereignty claim made through monetary plumbing. Kosovo’s status was contested, its institutions fragile, its economy vulnerable to smuggling and dependency. So Rugova points to the euro as a proxy for order: a way to import credibility when you can’t yet export recognition.

The phrasing does quiet diplomatic work. "Which means a lot" is deliberately modest, almost conversational, because the underlying message is anything but: we belong in Europe, and we’re behaving like it even if Europe won’t say so out loud. By crediting the euro with having "stabilized" Kosovo "politically and economically", he blurs the line between fiscal policy and state-building. Currency becomes a peacekeeping tool: it disciplines inflation, reduces uncertainty, and signals alignment with European rules rather than Balkan improvisation.

The real pivot is "facilitated the direct contact that we have with Europe". Rugova is talking about legitimacy, not just transactions. "Direct contact" frames Europe as a partner rather than an overseer, a subtle rebuttal to the reality of international administration and Kosovo’s limited agency at the time. The subtext: if integration is measured by interoperability, Kosovo is already interoperable. Recognition should follow practice, not the other way around.