LOCAL PRESS

Li: China not changing policy towards Serbia; Djuric: We appreciate support (RTS/Tanjug)

China respects Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, it will not change its policy when it comes to this, it expects further joint cooperation and struggle in this sense, since China is Serbia’s sincere friend and Serbia is one of its greatest friends in Europe, Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Manchang said. “You remember very well that we recently had a very successful visit of our president to Serbia, when our president has repeated several times the Chinese stand on Kosovo and Metohija. We respect Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We are grateful that Serbia supports in the same manner China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” said the Chinese Ambassador following the meeting with the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric. Djuric pointed out that he had used the meeting to acquaint Ambassador Li and Chinese representatives with the political and security situation in the Serbian southern province, and to thank for all the support and assistance offered by the Chinese government and people to our country on all issues, including this one. “Serbia has received over the past years principled and persistent support of the Chinese state and people. Our two countries understand each other regarding the broad issue of international relations and of course regarding one, for us the key issue, the issue of Serbia’s preservation of territorial integrity and sovereignty,” said Djuric. “Our friends from China have faced in their past and present certain problems that have parallels with what we are facing in Kosovo and Metohija. They have responded to these challenges with hard work, patience and respect of international law,” said Djuric.

The UN in Serbia warns of further deterioration of the situation facing refugees and migrants at the Serbia-Hungary border (RTS)

UN Agencies in Serbia express their concern over a further deterioration of the situation of refugees and migrants in the North of the Serbia in proximity to its border with Hungary.

As a result of new legislative measures in Hungary, which took effect on 5 July, the number of refugees and migrants on the Serbian side of the border has doubled over the last few days to above 1,300, the majority of them women and children. While several hundred are sheltered by the Government of Serbia in the Refugee Aid Point near Subotica, close to 800 asylum-seekers are waiting in the open on Serbian territory outside the Hungarian “transit zone” near Horgos I border-crossing, where overall conditions, particularly lack of shelter, health and sanitation represent major challenges. UN agencies and NGOs stepped up their assistance to the Government of Serbia by providing more food, water, medical and other aid.

Seeking asylum is a basic human right and according to international law an asylum-seeker should be granted access to the territory of the country where asylum is sought. However on 6 July over 120 asylum-seekers reported to authorities, the UN and partners that they were denied access to asylum procedures in Hungary and were instead pushed-back into Serbia outside re-admission or return procedures.

The UN in Serbia warns that these developments will further aggravate the situation in Serbia outside the Hungarian “transit zones” of Horgos (Roszke) and Kelebija (Tompa) where currently only 30 asylum-seekers have been allowed to enter EU territory each day, while hundreds more have had to wait for weeks out in the open in often desperate and inhumane conditions.

UN Agencies note that increased restrictive measures that ignore proper asylum procedures could encourage refugees and asylum-seekers to seek more dangerous irregular routes into Europe exposing them to ruthless smugglers. Unaccompanied children are especially at risk.

The UN in Serbia will continue supporting the Governement of Serbia in addressing the needs of refugees and migrants in a humane manner and in line with the country’s international obligations.

Stefanovic, Vulin, Loncar: Balkan migrant route still exists (Tanjug)

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Minister of Social Affairs Aleksandar Vulin and Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said in Presevo that migrants were still travelling along the Western Balkan route, adding that 102,000 had been registered in Serbia since the beginning of the year. Serbia will do everything to prevent illegal entries to its territory, protect its citizens and provide a humane treatment to migrants, said the ministers, who are also members of a working group set up to deal with mixed migration flows. They visited Presevo today to mark the first anniversary of the establishment of a local reception center. “A year ago we proved that the Balkan route exists. In a year, over 600,000 migrants passed through our country, and since January 1 this year we have registered 102,000 migrants passing through Serbia even though the Balkan route has been closed since the beginning of March. That means that the Balkan route still exists and that the people are finding it increasingly difficult to reach EU countries,” Vulin said. Serbia will not allow itself to become an area for stranded migrants just because all other countries have closed their borders, Vulin said. “Mass closures of borders in Europe have led to people smuggling becoming more remunerative. Smugglers take between 1,000 and 9,000 euros from migrants, but we will fight that as fiercely as we can,” said Stefanovic, who noted that migration flows were on the increase. Over the past three months, most of the migrants have been crossing into Serbia from Bulgaria, the ministers said. The Presevo reception center is currently home to just 13 migrants from Syria and Afghanistan.

Vulin demands from Vucic urgent session of security services coordination bureau over migrants (RTS)

Serbian Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin said that he demanded of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic an urgent session of Security Services Coordination Bureau over the situation with the migrants from Middle East, news agencies reported on Thursday. He said to the reporters that this session should determine what should Serbian authorities do and how to protect their territory considering the fact that the neighboring countries, such as Hungary, were behaving inadequately. Vulin said that he was very concerned after they received information that Hungarian authorities attempted not only to send migrants to the transit zone, but to return them to Serbian territory without any legal foundation and support in international law. “After we have received the information that Croatia is also considering construction of fences on our border and after we have received information that significantly larger number of migrants had been entering our territory, I must share my concern with the whole public,” he emphasized.

Vulin told RTS on Thursday evening that Serbia would not allow uncontrolled entrances to its territory or exits. He emphasized that the fact that 1.500 migrants were located in northern Serbia, on the border with Hungary, and approximately 500 of them were in the south, was very alarming. “It is alarming that some countries are following Hungarian example of forceful returning of migrants. This is absolutely unacceptable for us. We should not wait for thousands of people, but, once we see that “Balkan Route” is active once again, we should warn Europe that migrant crisis is still ongoing”, Vulin said.

Serbia considering concrete action on migrant crisis (Tanjug)

Serbia is considering concrete action and measures to prevent any negative impact of the migrant crisis on Serbian citizens, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said Thursday. In a statement to Tanjug, Stefanovic said he expected Vucic to call a meeting of a bureau coordinating the security services once the measures had been defined, and that the action to be taken would soon be announced.

Negotiating position for Chapter 23 without Zagreb’s request (RTS)

The EU is requesting from Serbian concrete and measurable results in implementing reforms of the judiciary, fight against corruption, protection of human and minority rights and strengthening of independent institutions, states the text of the adopted joint negotiating position for Chapter 23 into which Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) had insight. The document includes a list of a total of 50 “interim measures” that Serbia needs to fulfill in the following period in order to continue successfully negotiations in this key chapter on rule of law. These measures do not include Croatia’s request for amending the Serbian law on the Court for war crimes and guaranteed seat for the Croat minority in the Serbian parliament over which Zagreb has been blocking the opening of this chapters. These requests were not acceptable for most of other EU members states and the European Commission, so, instead, it is stated that “Serbia needs to cooperate with neighbors in processing war crimes, along with avoiding conflict of jurisdiction”, as well as that war crimes need to be treated in a “non-discriminatory manner”. The text of the joint negotiating position also doesn’t include Zagreb’s request to include stands on reparation for victims of war crimes and access to Serbian military and states archives in order to resolve the fate of missing. However, Serbia is called to cooperate constructively with neighboring countries in establishing the fate of missing persons, including “fast exchange of information”.

New Mufti of Islamic Community takes office (Beta)

On Thursday in Bajrakli mosque in Belgrade, the newly elected reis of Islamic Community of Serbia (IZS) Sead Nasufovic was handed a menshura, a document which confirms that he is appointed to act as the head of the Community in the following five years. The menshura was handed to him by the hitherto Serbian mufti Muhamed Jusufspahic, who is currently presiding the Supreme Assembly of IZS. Jusufspahic is to take office of the Ambassador of Serbia to Saudi Arabia.

Medjak: Constitution to be amended at least twice (Novosti)

Serbia needs to assimilate the Constitution with the EU regulative and it will need to amend it twice before joining the EU, said Vladimir Medjak, lawyer in the Serbian negotiating team with the EU. The most important amendment is the introduction of a clause that implies entrusting part of EU sovereign rights and the other amendment is the introduction of active and passive voting right of EU citizens, to vote for the European Parliament and local institutions. Also, a specific amendment of the Constitution has already been planned since Serbia is obliged to include in it the decree on the independence of the judiciary by 2017. Medjak says that the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue may bring at one point the need for amending the Constitution, even though one cannot say at present how the dialogue will proceed further or what will the legally binding agreement contain in the end.

REGIONAL PRESS

Another proof of lack of B&H credibility (Srna)

Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic told Srna that the postponement of the credit arrangement with the IMF is another proof of lack of B&H credibility and said that the RS government will compensate the funds in other way. Cvijanovic has said that the RS government had a serious approach to the overall work on the harmonization of the Letter of Intent with the IMF, because the arrangement with this financial organization would help all levels of government in the implementation of the Reform Agenda. “But knowing that any activity involving the engagement and partnership of all levels of government in B&H is difficult to implement in practice, we have prepared ourselves for no-arrangement-situation and defined some additional plans accordingly,” said the RS Prime Minister. Stating that in any case, RS would obtain only BAM 50 million, and since it is now certain that there will be no arrangement, because Prime Minister of the Federation of B&H, Fadil Novalic, and Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdic, failed to sign the Letter of Intent, Cvijanovic pointed out that the funds would be provided from other sources.

“It remains unclear why the negotiations were held and why two of them participated in the harmonization of the Letter of Intent if they refused to sign it, especially knowing that it was signed by the ministers of finance of the Federation of B&H and the B&H Council of Ministers. I remember that the chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers gave rather optimistic statements about the great funds the negotiations were about during his visit to the IMF and the World Bank in Washington a few months ago, thus I do not know what all that was about,” said Cvijanovic. In any case, she says, it is unfortunate that there will not be an arrangement since, apart from the locals, the people from the IMF and the EU invested a lot of effort to achieve an agreement, but now this is a new reality and therefore it is needless to waste words on it.

“In any case, the government of RS will compensate these funds in some other way because, having learned from a series of bad experiences when the funds for RS were blocked at the B&H level, we have never excluded a risk that the same could happen with the arrangement with the IMF. This is just another proof of the lack of B&H credibility and nothing more,” concluded the RS Prime Minister in her statement to Srna.

RS government defines proposal of law on processing and publication of census results for RS (FTV/N1)

The RS government defined on Thursday the Proposal of Law on Processing and Publication of Results of the 2013 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings for the Territory of the RS. The proposal of the law was defined in urgent procedure. It regulates the manner of processing and publication of census results in this entity. The census results will be published within six months upon law’s entry in force. The RS National Assembly (RSNA) Collegium is expected to determine on Friday the date of the special session of the RSNA dedicated to the census. RS Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic on Thursday asked for a special session of the RS Assembly to be held. The special session would be an opportunity to discuss the Proposal of Law on Processing and Publishing of Results of the 2013 Population and Housing Census in the RS.

Four never exhumed mass graves found in Posavina (Srna)

Marko Grabovac, the chairman of the RS committee on searching for detained and fallen veterans and missing civilians, claims four Serb mass graves lie in the area between Brod and Derventa, which have never been examined or dug up. Grabovac has told Srna that a witness of Croat ethnicity testified about where he had buried two killed Serbs. Further inspections and trial digging should be conducted to find Serb mass graves in Sijekovac, in the area of the former railway station and wells, and in Novo Selo on a private property, said Grabovac. “In the place of an old brick factory near the Sava River, there is a site presumed to hold a mass grave since 1992,” Grabovac said. He said that over the past three years he had requested the B&H Prosecutor’s Office to carry out trial digging in the locations presumed to be the mass graves of Serbs in the wider area of Brod, but to no avail. “I demand that an area between Brod and Odzak, a place near the Sava, be cleared from mines as it is presumed to hold a Serb mass grave,” said Grabovac. For such failures and incorrect treatment of the Serb victims, Grabovac accused the B&H Prosecutor’s Office and Missing Persons Institute, calling to account Amor Masovic as the most liable person. “We will never be able to put an end to the search for missing Serbs in B&H as long as the Prosecutor’s Office refuses to treat the Serb victims equally with the others,” Grabovac said. Milutin Misic, a member of the Advisory Board of the B&H Missing Persons Institute, earlier told Srna that they had found out that several Serb mass graves were found on Mt. Ozren and in Posavina and that they needed to be exhumed.

Radoncic: We have to identify attackers from last year’s commemoration in Srebrenica, we owe it to Vucic (RTRS)

President of SBB B&H Fahrudin Radoncic who commented for RTRS’ ‘Telering’ on the forthcoming commemoration in Potocari on 11 July. “We owe it to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and every citizen of our country to identify and penalize people who tried to lynch leader of a state during last year’s manifestation at Potocari. It is beyond comprehension that nobody has been processed for the attack and it is obvious that there is no political will to shed light on circumstances of the attack,” said Radoncic

Commission says Plenkovic’s candidacy for HDZ leader valid (Hina)

The central election commission of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party on Thursday confirmed the validity of Andrej Plenkovic’s candidacy for HDZ leader, noting that it was submitted within the prescribed time frame and was supported with 36,989 signatures. Plenkovic submitted signatures supporting his candidacy on Wednesday, announcing that he would present his program on Friday. Plenkovic is the sole candidate for HDZ leader and elections for the new president, after Tomislav Karamarko stepped down as party president recently, will be held on 17 July.

Haindl expected to convey message after meeting with party representatives (Telegraf.mk)

The German MP Johannes Haindl held a meeting Wednesday with representatives from the four party’s signatories of the Przino Agreement. But, as things stand now, it seems that an agreement is not going to be reached soon. The parties claim that a solution can be found, but in reality their efforts toward a solution are lacking. The German MP failed to schedule a leader meeting, which shows that the party stances still differ greatly. It is positive that there will be another work group meeting Thursday, while on Wednesday there was a meeting of the State Election Commission on the Electoral Roll. The Electoral Roll and the media issue are the main concerns upon which the calling of elections depends. Elections might be held either in May or in the fall, along with local elections. But, no matter when they happen, VMRO-DPMNE will demand firm guarantees from Zaev that elections will not be boycotted, that he publicly comes out to confirm that the electoral roll is purged and that SDSM will take part in elections.

Macedonia: As Przino meeting ends, positions of parties move up slightly (Nova TV)

With no agreement, but with mildly similar viewpoints the work groups meeting ended at the EU residence in Przino. The two issues discussed, upon which holding elections depends, were reforms in media and purging the electoral roll. After the Thursday meeting of the political party-signatories of the Przino agreement, members of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI stated that a mild progress has been made, but according to SDSM, no progress has been made yet. The meeting was attended by both EU and US Ambassadors, Aivo Orav and Jess Baily. “In terms of this meeting, I believe our positions have mildly moved up,” said Nikola Todorov, member of VMRO-DPMNE. According to VMRO-DPMNE, he said, it is completely unnecessary to mark 170,000 voters with asterisk to separate them as diaspora voters, and the additional 30,000 voters, which the State Election Commission (SEC) has found to be disputable, to be removed from the list if they do not register themselves. Still, members of VMRO-DMPNE has decided to accept SDSM’s request to prove the party wins the elections with projects and the trust of the citizens, and not manipulations in the electoral roll. “Regarding the media, our party believes that no media or journalist should be punished for writing an article. Forming some central censorship which is to decide whether an article is all right is completely unnecessary. We do not want the media to be in a situation where they will be fined, or to write following orders,” said Todorov, pointing that VMRO-DPMNE demands the fines to be decreased. He added that VMRO-DPMNE will not allow the parliamentary elections to be postponed for the third time, and that the party is always prepared to go to elections. “We need to make sure all conditions are met, and each party to say that publicly, then we will discuss the election date,” Todorov stated. Artan Grubi of DUI said he was an optimist, and that he hoped that an agreement will be reached soon by a constructive approach. In his statement after the meeting, he said that regarding the electoral roll, it is important for his party not to remove the voters who have a right to vote, just to obtain political points. “I see our positions have moved up, and the proposals are almost attainable for all. I am hoping that by a constructive approach and some small exceptions by the parties, we will reach an agreement,” Grubi said. SDSM and DPA representatives, Renata Deskoska and Imer Aliu, as well as the two ambassadors, Aivo Orav and Jess Baily, did not give statements for the media. SDSM published a press release, saying that at Thursday’s round of talks no progress has been made. “The ruling coalition does not agree with purging the electoral roll, and with real media reforms. VMRO-DPMNE and Nikola Gruevski are continuously running from fair and democratic elections,” the release read. The talks are taking place while the German special envoy to Macedonia Johannes Haindl is in the country. He stated on Thursday, that the crisis solution must happen before summer break, although if the positions of the parties are observed, that is far from possible. “It is very important for Macedonia to overcome the crisis as soon as possible, since this not good for investors, which the Macedonian economy needs,” Haindl told Nova TV. The talks are expected to intensify at the beginning of next week, when Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland will arrive to Macedonia.

Macedonian State Election Commission: Voters cannot be erased from electoral roll (Telegraf.mk)

Voters cannot be erased from the Electoral Roll, the State Election Commission says. Led by own interests, parties are spreading false allegations and facts regarding the Electoral Roll, the Commission says. Official sources assure that the Electoral Roll is accurate, however additional checkup will be made in order to erase all suspicion. The 40,000 voters that were not present during the field check will be further identified. The State Election Commission has not established the ways of inspection yet. Moreover, the Commission has no official stance regarding the 170,000 voters that are currently abroad. “These voters cannot be erased. The field checkup that was made was not obligatory. In order to do that, evidence are needed that these voters have lost their work capacity or are deceased. If the parties decide to erase these citizens from the Roll, they must make changes to the Electoral Code. Until then, we are obliged to respect the laws and the Constitution. We have also warned the parties that if they try to introduce changes to the Electoral Code, these changes might be rejected by the Constitutional Court. “, Commission member explains. According to the Commission, these 170,000 voters should be put on another list in order to prevent speculations. Hence, every voter will be checked and identified with a photograph on future elections. Most of the voters in question are Albanians, however the Commission dismisses this information as irrelevant. Voters that live abroad cannot be deprived from their right to vote, nor can they be transferred to the Diaspora roll.

“Colorful Revolutionaries” demand EU to include civil sector in solving Macedonian political crisis (Telegraf.mk)

The “Colorful Revolutionaries” have submitted a request to the EU to include the civil society in the negotiations to solve the crisis. They believe that this is the moment citizens to use their democratic rights and to get involved in solving the crisis, thus helping the country. “This model allows different representatives of the civil sector to attend all negotiations of the process. As direct observers and consultants, the most prepared representatives can take part in the talks and negotiations,” said Petrit Saracini, member of the Colorful Revolution, at Thursday’s press-conference in front of the EU Info Center. The “Revolutionaries” requested the representatives of the international community and representatives of the political parties to be immediately included in the talks, in order to make a decision for direct participation of members of the civil sector in the current political talks and negotiations. “We believe that the civil participation in solving the crisis is of crucial significance, and would enable monitoring of the negotiation process from the position of the civil sector, and would guarantee complete and credible reporting of information of the negotiation process to the citizens. It would also present the different viewpoints of all civil sectors and communities involved, civil coalitions, independent experts, and would offer solutions which the parties would not take into consideration,” Saracini added. Asked whether the Colorful Revolution protest will stand by, he said that there will not be protests every day, but they will be present in different ways.

Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry says Macedonian opposition prepares new “Colorful Revolution” (MIA)

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, said that Macedonian opposition parties are preparing for a new attempt to stage a “Colorful Revolution”, supported by foreign parties. Speaking at a press conference, Zakharova said that American diplomats were involved in stoking the recent protests in Serbia through a “small, paid aggressive group”, before adding that in Macedonia too preparations are under way for new protests. “Ground is being laid for a new Colorful Revolution, this time in Macedonia. We note that the practice of interference in internal affairs is deeply entrenched in the Balkans,” said Zakharova. She pointed out the protests organized by the opposition SDSM party against President Gjorge Ivanov and the government are the introduction to a new “revolution”. SDSM supporters and left wing NGO groups have been holding on and off protests for months, which they call the “colorful revolution”. Russia has blamed the Macedonian opposition of being involved in a foreign funded attempt to bring down the government since SDSM began publishing wiretaps of government officials in early 2015.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia Under Fire Over US Albanians’ Murders (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 8 July 2016)

Human rights campaigners, lawyers and academics called on the US and EU to pressurise Belgrade to solve the murder of three US citizens of Albanian origin killed in Serbia in 1999.

In a letter sent to US and EU leaders on Friday, a group of human rights campaigners, lawyers and academics, including former US officials, called for pressure to be exerted on Belgrade to resolve the murders of the Bytyqi brothers, three Albanian-Americans who were killed after being detained by Serbian police. The letter, which coincides with the 17th anniversary of their deaths, urges the US government and Senate and European Union officials “to take constructive steps to ensure better commitment and effort by Serbia’s leaders and institutions to resolve war crimes cases, including the Bytyqi Brothers case”. “This issue should be raised as part of your continuing dialogue with the Serbian government, parliament and civil society leaders,” it says.

Ylli, Agron, and Mehmet Bytyqi went to fight for the Kosovo Liberation Army against Belgrade’s forces and were arrested by Serbian police after the war ended when they strayed over an unmarked boundary line between Serbia and Kosovo. After serving their sentences for illegal border crossing, they were re-arrested as they were leaving the district prison in the town of Prokuplje in southern Serbia, taken to a police training centre in Petrovo Selo, and detained in a warehouse there. They were then tied up with wire by unknown persons and driven to a garbage disposal pit, where they were executed with shots to the back of the neck on July 9, 1999. The case has remained unsolved ever since and has continued to be a major bilateral problem between Serbia and the US. Two police officers believed to have been linked to the murder were put on trial, but they were acquitted. The signatories to the letter noted their “deep concern [about] the slow pace of Serbia’s domestic war crimes prosecutions, including its failure to resolve the murders of Ylli, Agron, and Mehmet Bytyqi”. They called Serbia’s record on the issue “dismal [and] unacceptable”. “In the Bytyqi case, Serbian political leaders have repeatedly failed to deliver on promises made to US officials, including Vice President [Joe] Biden and Secretary of State [John] Kerry,” Praveen Madhiraju, a legal representative of the Bytyqi family said in a statement included in the letter. Serbian presidents and prime ministers have pledged to solve the Bytyqi murders for years. In June 2015 Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said the Bytyqi case would be solved “very soon or much sooner than anybody might expect”. However, a year later, no visible progress has been made. The letter urges Brussels and Washington to put pressure on Serbia on war crimes during its EU accession talks. It is expected that Serbia will open Chapter 23 in the negotiations, the part that deals with the rule of law and human rights, this month. In its action plan for Chapter 23, the Serbian government promised to solve all war crimes cases, and even adopted a war crimes strategy. However, prosecutions of war crimes suspects have declined significantly in recent years. According to the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre’s report on transitional justice issues in Serbia from 2013 to 2015, which was published last month, over the last three years, 14 indictments have been confirmed – seven in 2013, seven in 2014, but none in 2015. Since it was established in 2003, the Serbian war crimes prosecution office has issued 62 indictments, with 43 cases ending in a final verdict.

Tanya Domi, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and adviser to campaign group Freedom House, said in a statement that was also included in the letter to US and EU leaders that Serbian officials were undermining their country’s progress by not dealing with war crimes.

“Serbia’s path toward becoming a democratic state demands it must confront its sordid past by pursuing accountability through vigorous and transparent legal processes,” Domi said.

Moscow regrets Montenegro’s refusal to hold referendum on NATO membership (TASS, 7 July 2016)
On May 19, the foreign ministers of 28 NATO member-countries signed a protocol on Montenegro’s accession to NATO, after which it was granted an observer status
ARTEK (Yalta). Moscow regrets the Montenegrin authorities’ refusal to hold a referendum on the country’s accession to NATO, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. Montenegro’s accession to NATO is in full swing, but no one asks the opinion of the Montenegrins,” she said. The diplomat noted that this country’s residents are in favor of holding such a referendum, as this is “an important step, which will not remain without consequences in the international arena.” On May 19, the foreign ministers of 28 NATO member-countries signed a protocol on Montenegro’s accession to NATO, after which it was granted an observer status. After the procedure of ratifying this document is over, the country will automatically become the alliance’s 29th member.

Balking at enlargement (The Economist, 8 July 2016)

A powder-keg region worries that Brexit may block its path to Europe

BACK when the European project was in top gear, it was largely driven by the continent’s fear of Balkanisation. Now, the Balkans fear what they dub “Britainisation”: the risk that Brexit will block their efforts to get into the European Union. On July 4th the leaders of the western Balkan countries met in Paris with François Hollande, Angela Merkel and various EU officials to discuss their accession bids. The Balkan leaders were “in shock”, said a senior diplomat. Since the end of the wars of the 1990s, joining the EU has been their foreign-policy priority. They wanted to know whether Britain’s decision to leave had poisoned Europe’s appetite for enlargement. The first omen was not good. After the referendum, Britain failed to grant its consent for Serbia to proceed to the next stage of its membership negotiations. British officials soon reversed the decision, and EU officials put it down to post-referendum chaos. The Paris meeting, the third in a series, was a German initiative—like much else in the Balkans these days. It included various feel-good gestures. The EU announced €150m ($167m) in aid for infrastructure and other projects. A youth-exchange organisation was launched to help reconcile the region’s formerly warring nations. But the meat of the conference was the encounter between Mrs Merkel, Mr Hollande and the Balkan leaders, notably those from non-EU countries: Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The EU’s aim in giving these Balkan states a path to membership has been to guarantee the peace in a region that has long been a source of European crises. Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande insisted that this policy holds, and enlargement will carry on. Edi Rama, Albania’s prime minister, insisted: “No one knows where [Britain] will end up, but it is sure Albania will end up in Europe.” Yet even if the EU does not halt enlargement, it may be too preoccupied by Britain’s exit and Euroscepticism elsewhere to make much progress. That would be a shame. As Goran Svilanovic of the Regional Co-operation Council, a Sarajevo-based multilateral body, puts it: “In geopolitics, there is no vacuum.” Russia, Turkey, China and radical Islamists are gaining as EU influence fades. Those worried about migration should recall that Balkan collapse touched off Europe’s previous refugee crisis—and Balkan co-operation was needed to bring order to the current one. “The decision of Great Britain has changed nothing,” said Mrs Merkel. One hopes not.

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.