LOCAL PRESS

Dacic: Elections not a priority (B92)

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has said that his Socialists (SPS) “also find the coming year the best for elections, because they achieved the best results.” But the question now is whether this is a priority, Dacic told TV B92 in an interview late on Monday. “I do not see a reason for elections. No government since that led by Djindjic had a more positive assessment from the citizens,” he said. Dacic added while “those parties that are not in the government want elections so they could be in power,” SNS leader and his first deputy in the cabinet Aleksandar Vucic and himself do not believe that elections are a priority. “All EU members today speak positively about Serbia, there has been a historic success on the road to European integration. There is a difficult period coming: on January 17 we will be forced to a meeting with Thaqi so they can pressure us ahead of the first intergovernmental conference on January 21,” said Dacic. He added that in February “experts for chapters 23 and 24 are coming, when progress in reforms in the field of justice and internal affairs will be appraised.” He said that his relationship with Vucic was “correct” and that they always “sought agreement on everything.” After the government reshuffle, Dacic stressed, the cabinet was stable and the SNS received a majority without elections. When asked what he thought about a message sent by Nikolic that he would not sign any “interstate agreement with Kosovo,” Dacic said that this message was not sent to him, but to “the EU and Brussels.” “The (Kosovo) talks were status-neutral from the start, the talks which, I’ll remind you, were initiated by President Nikolic,” Dacic said. “None of us has the intention and the Serbian government will never sign an inter-state contract with Pristina. We will never, at the cost of future membership in the EU, change that opinion,” said Dacic. He also said that his chances of winning a Nobel Peace Prize are a thousand to one and the issue should be put aside, as even if he wins the award, he will think very seriously about whether he should accept it in the company of Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi. He stated that he had said it before the UN Security Council, in Thaqi’s presence, that he considers Thaqi to be a trader in human organs. The prime minister stressed that he had not asked anybody to nominate him for the prize and none of his efforts have been aimed at receiving it and he is not interested in it. “Should Thaqi receive it or not is not something that we can be deciding about, and the chances of my getting it are a thousand to one so the issue should be put aside. The only good thing here is that somebody said something nice about us, and whether I like the company – well, I did not like the company even when I first sat down to negotiate,” Dacic said. “If I get it, I will seriously think about whether it should be received in such a company at all,” Dacicsaid when asked to comment on a statement by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic that he should not accept receiving the prize in the presence of the Kosovo prime minister.

Vucic: Nikolic doing a good job, no complaints about Dacic (RTS/Kurir)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated he is unable to say if there will be elections next year, but it will be discussed within his party and with the Prime Minister. In a New Year’s interview to Kurir, Vucic responded to the question about the extraordinary parliamentary elections: “I am not a man who wishes to be a Prime Minister for the sake of my vanity. I thing the Serbian President is doing a good job, and I have no strategic complaints on the way of Prime Minister performing his duty.” In view of the battle against crime and corruption, he pointed nobody will be exempt from investigation and sanctions.

Only an Albanian suspected of the massacre in “Panda” (Politika)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who also performs the function of the head of the Bureau for Coordination of Security Services, told TV Pink that there was no evidence that the murder of six Serb youngsters in the “Panda” café in Pec, on 14 December 1998, was committed by Albanian extremists, as it is believed to be the case. The murder was committed during the fierce clashes of the KLA with the Serbian Interior Ministry and the Yugoslav army, when foreign observers (“verificators”) were also present in the province, before the war with NATO. “There are many horrible things we will have to face,” said Vucic, without further elaborations. The massacre in the “Panda” café is one of the most serious crimes against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. Unlike the mass murder of the harvesters in Staro Gracko in July 1999, or the murder and wounding of children in Gorazdevac in August 2003, it occurred during the time when Serbian security and judicial forces were present in the province, which were trying to shed light on the crime. Oliver Ivanovic, the leader of the SDP Civic Initiative from Kosovska Mitrovica, says the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija have not forgotten this crime even after 15 years and are anticipating whether those responsible will be brought to justice. “I had the opportunity, I think this was on the 10th anniversary of the murder, to meet in Pec with the families of the victims. I promised them to inquire whether there was any information on the perpetrators of that crime. In talks with the people from the Security Information Agency (BIA) I was told that a person that was connected to the massacre, an Albanian, was arrested on the day when the crime occurred. The fact was brought to my attention that this person was quickly released, which differs from the practice of the then state security. They tried to arrest him again, but he had already disappeared. I saw the case that refers to the crime in “Panda” and I was explained there was not enough data that could help in shedding light on the case,” Ivanovic tells Politika. He says that in this crime too, just as in other mass murders of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, the “law of silence” reigns among the Albanians, even when the victims are children and teenagers. The same unwritten rule is also valid in mutual liquidations among the Albanians. High school students Ivan Obradovic (14), VukotaGvozdenovic (16), Svetislav Ristic (17), Zoran Stanojevic (17), Dragan Trifovic (17) and university student Ivan Radevic (24) were murdered in the “Panda” café. Masked gunmen killed the youngsters with automatic weapons in a high school café and escaped. An investigation was launched, but it didn’t continue after the Serbian institutions departed Pec. To Politika’s recent question whether this massacre is being investigated, EULEX didn’t even respond.

Office for Kosovo and Metohija: We demand urgent reaction to the theft of a water pump (Tanjug)

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija has demanded the competent authorities to react urgently to the incident in the village of Grabac, near Klina, central Kosovo, where 12 Serb families have been left without water because a water pump was stolen. “We ask the international community not to be a silent observer of the terror and torture exerted against the Kosovo Serbs, but to take all the necessary measures to punish the perpetrators of this and all other criminal acts,” the announcement reads. Serb returnees in the village of Grabac, Klina municipality, have again been deprived of water after thieves stole a water pump for the eighth time.

REGIONAL PRESS

House of Peoples adopts proposal for B&H institutions budget(Oslobodjenje)

The House of Peoples of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly, in record time and in urgent procedure, adopted the draft law on the budget of BiH institutions and international obligations for 2014.Nine delegates voted for, three delegates were opposed, and there were no abstentions. Previously, the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly adopted a budget proposal with amendments contained in the report of the Commission for Finance and Budget of the home. According to the adopted proposal, the budget amounts to about 1.797 billion KM, of which the total revenue for financing institutions amounts to 950 million, while revenue for external debt servicing amounts to 846.39 million KM, an increase of 57.91 million KM or seven percent compared to this year’s budget.

Dodik: Independence national goal for RS (Srna)

“Independence of the Republika Srpska (RS) is a national and peoples’ goal, and of course it should be a political goal as well.The RS respects the international agreement called the Dayton Accord and it is something on which we agree, but that doesn’t mean that we are prepared to make changes to our rights and reduce our autonomy. Always when this happened, in the RS it returns to the story about this other contra-process, the process of independence,” said the RS President Milorad Dodik in his new year’s address to media editors in the RS. For the RS he said there is a phase of waiting for the B&H Federation to resolve the Sejdic-Finci issue, and they are in the phase of waiting for some other issues, which could substantively affect future relations in B&H.He confirmed that the “Council for the Protection of the Vital Interest of the RS,” whose decision on formation he made, will have a role in reacting in case of threatening the RS’ vital interests. “The team of experts will have the task of recognizing various practices in European countries in this field,” said Dodik, noting that it is planned that the Council include the most responsible RS functionaries, and he will offer that the advisory body be comprised of representatives of the scientific community and part of the opposition. Dodik reiterated this time the claims of the need to redefine the B&H Court and Prosecution, and spoke of 2013 in a political and institutional sense, noting that despite the crisis, in 2013 they successfully promoted a policy of further strengthening of the RS and preserving the stability and functioning of the most important institutions.

Vujanovic: Future of Montenegro and Serbia in partnership (Pobjeda)

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic has stated that the future of relations with Serbia lies in the respect and development of partnerships in all fields of mutual interest. “I am sure that the state policies of both Serbia and Montenegro see the future of our relations in mutual respect and partnership. These are very close states, both historically and currently, but also through shared future goals,” Vujanovic said to the Podgorica daily Pobjeda. He underlined that the two states are bound by major infrastructure projects such as the revamp of the Belgrade-Bar rail link and construction of the highway between Montenegro and Serbia.Vujanovic noted that Serbia and Montenegro have considerable foreign trade, and that Serbian tourists come to Montenegrin tourist resorts in great numbers. “We are practically compatible in all fields of economy. We have concluded good inter-state agreements, we are clearly committed to cooperation, and now it is only needed to achieve effects of mutual respect and partnerships between the two states,” the Montenegrin President said.

Vucic: Polite and normal Serbia not so far anymore (Dan)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated that the economic progress is the central goal in the next year, adding that a lot more work will be needed to make even better results in that field. The economic progress is our main goal, and the polite and normal Serbia is something we strive for, but it is not so far anymore, Vucic told the Podgorica daily Dan. He said that obtaining the date for the accession talks with the EU was the triumph and accomplishment of all those citizens who had correctly understood the place of Serbia. In comment to the dialogue with Pristina, which resulted in the Brussels agreement, Vucic has underlined that it was often difficult and painstaking. But it is our duty to behave seriously in face of any problem, I expect that in 2014 and even more so in 2015, following the tough reforms, the Serbian citizens will have a better life.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Former UN Kosovo envoy Hans Haekkerup dies (AP, by Karl Ritter, 30 December 2013)

STOCKHOLM — Hans Haekkerup, a former Danish defense minister and U.N. envoy who oversaw Kosovo’s first general election, has died. He was 68.

A veteran Social Democratic politician who was first elected to the Danish Parliament in 1979, Haekkerup died on Dec. 22 after a long illness, party spokesman Martin Justesen said.

Haekkerup served in the ministries of education, social affairs and labor before being appointed as defense minister in 1993, a post he held until he succeeded Bernard Kouchner of France as the U.N.’s top official in Kosovo in January 2001.

Kosovo fought a separatist war against Serbia in 1998-99, and declared independence in 2008 after almost a decade of being administered by the United Nations.

Haekkerup secured the participation of the Serb community in Kosovo’s first general election in 2001, but the move strained relations with the ethnic Albanian majority. His departure from the job as chief U.N. administrator after just one year was largely blamed on ethnic Albanian extremists.

Haekkerup’s death was not announced publicly until his burial on Monday. Justesen wouldn’t comment on the cause of death other than saying that Haekkerup had been ill for a long time.

In 2011 Haekkerup told a Danish newspaper that he suffered from multiple system atrophy, a deadly neurological disease.

Associated Press Writer Nebi Qena in Pristina, Kosovo, contributed to this report.

Macedonia Parties Sift Presidential Options (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 30 December 2013)

With three months to go before presidential elections, both the ruling and main opposition parties appear to be considering running candidates from outside their own ranks.

The head of Macedonia’s main opposition Social Democratic Party, Zoran Zaev, has said that his party was leaning towards choosing a candidate from outside the party to stand for the presidency in the March election.
“My party is ready to overcome its prejudices and support a candidate whom we believe will be a good president and acceptable for all, no matter their ethnic, religious or political affiliation,” Zaev said last week.

“What that means is an above-party solution,” he added.
According to a recent party survey reported in the media, the existence of which the opposition has declined to confirm, Stevo Pendarovski, a former advisor to Presidents Boris Trajkovski and Branko Crvenkovski, tops the list of potential opposition candidates.
Pendarovski is leading Denko Maleski, a diplomat seen as close to the opposition who was Macedonia’s first foreign minister after independence in the 1990s.
The ruling VMRO DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has so far not mentioned any names.
But a source close to the party leadership told Balkan Insight that its own preliminary opinion polls had also shown that non-partisan candidates are more popular with voters than those coming from within the party’s ranks.
“All the options are still open, but surveys show that candidates who come from other fields [than politics] are in general more popular among the people,” the source noted.
One possible candidate for the ruling party who has been mentioned in the media is the diplomat Srgjan Kerim, who presided over the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly.
A relatively new name in the ring is Sasko Kedev, a well-known heart surgeon who was a VMRO DPMNE presidential candidate in 2004.
Another new name being mentioned is history professor Nikola Zezov, though neither he nor Kedev has confirmed any ambition to stand for the presidency.
Macedonia’s current President, Gjorge Ivanov, has not said whether he will run for another five-year term in March.
He won his first term in 2009 thanks largely to the support of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party.

A Europe Without a Future (Strategic Culture Foundation, by Vladimir Nesterov, 29 December 2013)

In summer of this year high spirits prevailed in Brussels. When Eurostat published its statistical report for the second quarter, it turned out that the economy of the Eurozone, despite the pessimistic expectations of experts, had grown. Not at all significantly, of course – by 0.3%, and that was mainly from a certain amount of economic recovery in Germany and France. The growth of the largest economies of Europe equaled 0.7% and 0.5% respectively, in annual terms.  It was predicted that Germany’s GDP would increase by another 0.5% by the end of the year. Of course, the GDP of the Eurozone, pulled down by the «problem countries» of southern Europe, will still go down by the same 0.5%

Anyway, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy hastened to announce that «the low point of the financial crisis in Europe has passed», and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso proclaimed that «the EU is transitioning from a crisis policy to a growth policy». And all this was happening while experts were saying that it’s too early to start rejoicing about the «growth». For example, Guntram Wolff, director of the analytical center Bruegel, stated at that time, «Growth figures in all of Europe are still way too small to manage to turn around the situation on the job market. Unemployment rates will remain high in southern Europe next year as well. It is going to be a while before we’ll see any relief there… I think public investments are especially important in Germany, which has one of the lowest public investment quotas in the EU. It is surprising that in a country where borrowing money comes so cheap investments are so low. In Germany in particular there are a couple of shortfalls when it comes to public infrastructure. In some regions like the Ruhr region it’s obvious that public investments are lagging behind.»

However, neither Berlin nor Brussels has turned out to be prepared for such a turn of events. Of course, the ECB has tried to take some measures, for example, lowering the discount rate to 0.25%. However, Germany, which has the strongest economy in Europe, has not supported the ECB’s initiative by increasing investments. Submitting to Berlin’s will, other countries have done the same.

Seeing the financial policy of their governments, entrepreneurs also joined in the «cheap money» game. They started investing, but in real estate, not in the real sector. This happened in France, in Germany and in other countries.

A Sobering November

The summer optimism of Brussels officials had evaporated by late November. At the end of the third quarter, the Eurozone’s economic growth turned out to be illusory – it was only 0.1% (!). That is, the crisis hasn’t gone anywhere; it was only lying low in order to pop up again with new force. The third quarter refuted the commonly-held notion of a «two-speed Europe», according to which, while there is no growth in Southern Europe, there definitely is in the North. Nothing could be further from the truth; not a single country in the Eurozone can currently boast of significant growth. Even in Germany the growth of the GDP was ridiculously modest – 0.3%, or 1.3% in annual terms.  And they may not even end up with this 1.3%. The fact of the matter is that in September production had already started to decline. And the fourth quarter started extremely poorly; in October Germany’s industrial production volume was 1.2% lower than in September. Production in the processing industry went down by 1.1%, manufacturing of capital goods decreased by 3%, and manufacturing of durable consumer goods decreased by 4.5%.

«The German economy has not managed to make a good start to the fourth quarter. Businesses are still holding back with investment. This indicates a rather cautious outlook for investment activity in the coming months», said Commerzbank economist Ralph Solveen, commenting on recent events.

In the end, everything comes down to the reduced purchasing power in Europe and in the rest of the world brought about by the crisis. For the German economy, which is focused on exports, hard times have come. It is worth noting that at the November China-EU summit in Beijing, neither the Germans nor the other Europeans, who are accustomed to criticize the Chinese government for «human rights violations», said a single word on this topic. And this is understandable; whether or not the Germans like the way the Chinese do things, there is no other consumer of their products as large as China, and there is unlikely to be one.

Things are no better in the smaller countries of the Eurozone. Austria has managed to return to an insignificant amount of growth, 0.2%. The Netherlands compensated for a drop in the first half of the year, showing growth of 0.3%. Finland reached growth of 0.4%. There have been no noticeable changes for the better in «problem» Southern Europe, either. Growth in Spain is microscopic; Italy is not growing yet, and since the beginning of the crisis its GDP has shrunk by 25% (!). In Greece the decline is continuing as usual, albeit not as rapidly as before.

As for France, people there now believe that the «chronic patient» of Europe is no longer Greece, but their own country. A 0.1% reduction in the GDP caused a sort of national stress. After all, both Gaullist Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist Francois Hollande have continually reduced social expenses, raised existing taxes and introduced new ones. As a result, unemployment rose in the third quarter of this year; among young people, according to data for September, it has remained at the level of 25%.

Amid the economic problems in Europe, poverty is progressing rapidly. According to Eurostat sociologists, in 2012 124.5 million people were on the brink of poverty. The worst situation is in Bulgaria, where poverty and social isolation threaten half (!) of the population. Next after Bulgaria are Romania and Latvia, where 42% and 37% of residents are at risk of poverty, respectively. In Lithuania poverty threatens 33% of the population, in Poland 27.2%, and in Estonia 23.1%. Italy must be mentioned among such countries as well; although the percentage of poor people is not so large (29.2%), in absolute terms they come to 18.2 million people. The Italians make up the largest mass of poor people in Europe.

From Euroskepticism to Total Pessimism

The debt crisis which is already in its fifth year in Europe and the severe austerity measures which all European countries have had to introduce is causing a rise in Euroskepticism, not only on the periphery of Europe, but in relatively prosperous countries like Germany and Austria as well.

The results of a survey conducted in late August – early September 2013 by the French marketing firm IFOP show an abrupt increase in the number of Euroskeptics in the top four economies of the Eurozone: Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The main question they asked the Germans, French, Italians and Spaniards was whether they felt that membership in the European Union was advantageous to them. 37% of residents of the Pyrenees believe that membership in the EU only brings Spain problems (a year earlier 26% in Spain were Euroskeptics). In France the number of those who are dissatisfied with their country’s membership in the European Union rose from 38% in 2012 to 43% at present. In Germany 44% of the population disapprove of membership in united Europe (a year ago 36% in Germany were Euroskeptics). The greatest number of Euroskeptics is in Italy, where 45% of citizens see no benefit in being part of the European Union…

Along with Euroskepticism, the souls of Old World residents are increasingly filled with pessimism. People are losing hope and faith in the future. According to data from the American Pew Research Center, which conducted a study on this topic in spring 2013, only 28% of Germans, 17% of the British, 14% of Italians and 9% of the French believe that their children will live better than previous generations. What is even more interesting is that pessimism in the West contrasts sharply with optimism in developing countries; 82% of the Chinese, 59% of Indians and 65% of Nigerians believe in a better future.

Obviously those experts who believe that Europe is losing its former leading position as the locomotive of progress are right. The time of other civilizations has come.________________________________________________________________________________

Produced by the media analysis team of the UN Office Belgrade.  Fax No. 381-11-367-0980