LOCAL PRESS
Vucic, Barroso: EU membership is Serbia’s priority (Politika/RTS/Radio Serbia)
Full-fledged membership in the EU is the priority task of the Serbian government, said Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic after talks with the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso in Belgrade. Barroso said that Brussels would continue strongly supporting Serbia’s EU integrations. Vucic said that numerous obligations and serious economic reforms were ahead of Serbia and that Serbia must conduct those reforms if it wants to become a true European society. Barroso shared his view, making certain remarks regarding the reform process. The Prime Minister said that, according to Brussels, the poorest situation in Serbia was in the following five fields: financial control, judiciary, rule of the law, environment and agriculture. Regardless of the political difficulties, in the forthcoming period we need to work responsibly on the reforms to bring us closer to EU membership. However, we must be aware of the fact that serious economic reforms will not yield results in just a couple of months, but in three years only, emphasized Vucic. He stressed he believed that Serbia had great chances of completing the EU integrations process in 2018, after which it will be upon the EU member-states to make a decision on Serbia’s membership. Jose Manuel Barroso stressed that Brussels would continue strongly supporting Serbia’s EU integrations, adding that the screening process has been completed or is under way for 18 of the 35 chapters in total. He said that Brussels was impressed, but not surprised at the professionalism and expertise of the Serbian negotiating team. He was unable to reply to the question which chapters will be the most difficult for negotiations, but added that political issues were always more delicate than economic ones. As for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, he said both sides had displayed vision and courage and that what has been agreed in Brussels must now be implemented. Barroso said that, despite the economic crisis, the EU door would be opened for all the Western Balkan countries. After Belgrade, he is to visit Tirana, the capital of Albania, which has officially become an EU candidate-state as well. The Serbian Prime Minister said he had congratulated his Albanian counterpart on his country’s being granted the candidate status. In addition to talks with the highest Serbian officials, on his second visit to Serbia in his capacity of the president of the European Commission, Barroso also visited Obrenovac, a town in Serbia that was struck most by the recent severe floods. Vucic thanked the President of the European Commission for the help and support the EU has given Serbia so far.
Udovicki on Kosovo in SEECP (Danas)
Participation of Kosovo in the South-East Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP) is aimed at strengthening regional cooperation, Danas was told by associates of Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Kori Udovicki in comment to her participation in the SECCP gathering in Bucharest, when the decision was passed on Kosovo’s equal treatment in this regional initiative. Udovicki’s cabinet explains that, stemming from the Agreement on regional representation and cooperation and the Brussels agreement, several informal and formal meetings were organized during the Romanian presidency over the SECCP, including those at the ministerial level, where Kosovo, along with respecting the principle of status neutrality, was invited as a special guest. “On this occasion, at the summit in Bucharest held on 25 June, ‘Kosovo*’ was invited as a special guest and it was represented by Atifete Jahjaga. The Declaration was adopted at the summit, whereby ‘Kosovo*’ is invited to continue to participate, following the principle of all-encompassing inclusiveness that is applied in the South-East Cooperation Process,” Udovicki’s associates state. They point out that Kosovo’s further participation is based on the invitation of the SECCP participating states, without the name of statuary documents, and this is participation aimed at contributing to strengthening regional cooperation, stabilization and security in the region. “As regards the stand of the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister on the gathering in Bucharest, she considers that this is yet another step towards normalization of relations in the region,” Udovicki’s associates said.
Steinmeier: Germany supports Serbia’s EU path, but will not be reducing requirements (Beta)
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin that Germany would support Serbia on its EU course, but that it was not going to reduce requirements on that course and commended Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s government for their resolution to conduct reforms. Opening a panel discussion on Serbia’s EU integrations, Steinmeier said that the course towards the EU would not be easy at all, that it entailed courage and persistence and that it was important that the policy be constructive and serve peace. “We will be a partner, but a demanding one, who is to support you in the process of overcoming challenges, but not in the reduction of your obligations.” The panel discussion on Serbia’s EU integrations has been organized by the Serbia-Germany Forum, founded in Belgrade in April this year, and the German Foreign Policy Council.
DSS: Serbia becoming EU colony (RTS/Tanjug)
The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) has warned that Serbia is slowly becoming a colony of the EU thanks to the wrong policy of the government whose decisions are in favor of recognition of the independent state of Kosovo. The DSS vice president Slobodan Samardzic has stated that it can be seen that “the Serbian government has a completely wrong policy when it comes to the state policy.” Samardzic said that the government “was grabbing forward with firm steps when it comes to Kosovo’s independence” while in cooperation with the EU “it doesn’t have its own policy” so that “Serbia was slowly becoming an EU colony”. Samardzic also criticized the government because Minister Kori Udovicki didn’t veto the presence of the Kosovo delegation at the recent session of the SEECP. He said that the current government had thus breached the agreements made by Borislav Stefanovic on the appearance of the Kosovo delegation at international gatherings with a footnote and an appropriate label showing compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
100 years since Assassination at Sarajevo (RTS)
June 28 marks 100 years since the 1914 assassination at Sarajevo of Archduke of Austria-Este Franz Ferdinand that Austria-Hungary used as an excuse for invading Serbia and starting World War One. Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb and high-school student in Belgrade, was a member of the political and revolutionary youth organization Young Bosnia (Mlada Bosna), created in Bosnia ten years earlier. He carried out the assassination together with several other members of the organization, killing the archduke, heir to the Austrian throne. He also accidentally shot and mortally wounded his pregnant wife, Sophie Chotek, who was by his side. Austro-Hungarian authorities accused the Kingdom of Serbia of being behind the assassination, although the plot was carried out without its knowledge. Vienna claimed that Young Bosnia had been under the control of the Black Hand, a Serbian secret terrorist organization headed by Dragutin Dimitrijevic, commonly known as Apis, and that the assassins had been trained in Serbia where they had also been given weapons. Princip, who was born in the village of Obljaj near Bosansko Grahovo on July 13, 1894, was less than 20 years old at the time of the assassination, and in the consequent trial in Sarajevo, he could not be sentenced to death, but was given a sentence of 20 years in prison instead. He served his sentence in an infamous prison in the Czech Terezin Fortress, where he died of tuberculosis. Due to squalid prison conditions, at the end of his life, he weighed only 40 kilograms. Gavrilo Princip found his resting place in a grave at the Chapel of Heroes of St Vitus in Sarajevo, erected shortly before World War Two. Several years ago, Luidi Pozdek, an old fisherman from Istria, Croatia, and an inmate at Terezin at the same time as Princip, gave a testimony about how Princip had been tortured and deprived of food in the prison. Some Croatian media reported about Pozdek’s testimony from the end of last decade, which said that Princip had been systematically beaten literally every day. Princip received food only every fifth day, Pozdek said. The list of torture techniques was long, and the prison’s “specialty” was to have Princip rolled in a barrel with protruding nails poking his tormented body. The 1878 Treaty of Berlin approved Austria-Hungary’s occupation of Bosnia, which officially remained part of the Ottoman Empire until the annexation of the territory in 1908.
From then on, until the beginning of World War One, every aspect of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) society was modernized and industrialized, but the national societies of the Serb and other nations in B&H were abolished, national cultures were suppressed and political opponents persecuted. The Great War lasted from July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia, until the autumn of 1918. Most of the world’s great powers, grouped into two hostile alliances – the Entente Powers, or the Allies, including the Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro, and the Central Powers – took part in it. The Great War saw the end of four empires: the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman and the Russian. Over a million Serbs, including about 40,000 Serb volunteers, and according to certain data, as many as 1.7 million, or nearly one-third of the total population of the Kingdom of Serbia at the time, were killed in the war. The War left 264,000 invalids and war orphans. About 70 percent of the Serbian economy was destroyed. Total war damage amounted to 13 billion French francs in gold. With more than 70 million people carrying weapons, the consequences were that more than 15 million people were killed and 20 million wounded, and the direct participants in the war suffered enormous destruction of their states and economies. Serbia, which was on the winning side, together with Montenegro and other territories inhabited by Serbs and other South Slav nations that had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, got underway with the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
REGIONAL PRESS
Izetbegovic: Europe made an invalid of B&H (Oslobodjenje)
The Chair of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic took part in the press conference at the National Theatre, where the petition “A Million Signatures for B&H in the European Union” was presented.Izetbegovic recalled that B&H was twice made an invalid. Put in a straitjacket. And the international community, Europeans, did it. The first was due to the embargo imposed, when they were failing to act and not helping, resolving it by sending humanitarian aid. Thus cleansing their conscience. And after that they sent Dayton, which disabled the state apparatus of B&H. “After all this they told us that the doors of the EU are open. Only they persistently keep us outside. They participated in the wounding of this invalid that they keep out. So let us into the space. So let this invalid sit. Sit with them together. And let us start negotiations. I think that this Sejdic-Finci precondition should be transformed into one of the conditions of one of the chapters. And it needs to comply with what B&H is. What its spirit is, which is its substance. B&H was certainly the forerunner of a united Europe. “They allowed in the war that this multiethnic tissue of B&H be rocked and destroyed. Maybe they will reinvigorate the dormant conscience of Europe,” said Izetbegovic.
Dodik: Inadmissible position of U.S. Embassy (Srna)
The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik said that the position of the US Embassy as presented on the occasion of the observance of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, namely, that the RS political leaders “missed an opportunity to demonstrate commitment to joint European values and reconciliation,” is unfair and inadmissible. “In the last while, I have been doing my utmost not to get involved in public polemics on certain issues, but if this concerns the RS and B&H, then, at the very least, it is improper to make such qualifications. Though this comes from Americans, still such interference in local matters is too much,” Dodik told reporters in Milici. Commenting on the position of the U.S. Embassy that “it is shameful that the RS political leaders tried to score political points” by criticizing the Istocno Sarajevo Mayor in connection with his participation in last week’s cycling race, in the organizing of which both Sarajevo and Istocno Sarajevo took part, Dodik said that this only speaks of the collusion between foreign factors and domestic converts. Dodik reiterated that it is clear to everyone that B&H is a failed country and that this is merely confirmed by such behavior of the Bosniak side and the U.S. Embassy.
“Monster” case trial ends with 6 life imprisonment sentences (Beta)
The Skopje-based Basic Court 1 has sentenced Alil Demiri, Afrim and Agjim Ismailovic and Ezim and Haki Aziri and Samil Ljuta to life in prison for the Smilkovo Lake murders. The Skopje Court 1 has found the defendants guilty of committing a terrorist act and sentenced them to life imprisonment in line with a verdict for the case in connection to the multiple killings near Smilkovo Lake. The accused S.R. has been acquitted, the court announced on Monday. The defendants A. D. and A.I. were tried and convicted in absentia. The verdict is not final thus the parties have the right to file an appeal to the Appellate Court. Kire Trickovski, Filip Slavkovski, Cvetanco Ackovski, Aleksandar Nakjevski and Borce Stefanovski were found slain near the Smilkovo Lake on 13 April 2012 on the eve of Easter.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Angry Kosovo Serbs call Serbian president “traitor”(AFP, 29 June 2014)
Pristina – Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic was booed during a visit to Kosovo on Saturday by ethnic Serbs who accused his government of betrayal for agreeing to normalise relations with the breakaway state.
Nikolic was addressing around 1,000 Kosovo Serbs at a ceremony marking the anniversary of an historic 14th century battle at Gazimestan, around five kilometres (three miles) southwest of the capital Pristina.
Midway through his speech, several hundred people in the crowd began chanting “traitor” and booing.
Many Kosovan Serbs are angry over a landmark agreement signed last year that normalised ties between Serbia and Kosovo, a majority ethnic Albanian region that declared independence in 2008.
“You betrayed Kosovo!” and “Treason, treason!” were among the shouts directed at Nikolic.
He was forced to cut short his speech at the historic site where the Serbian army was defeated by the Ottoman Empire in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo.
That defeat paved the way for the Ottoman Empire’s 500-year rule in the Balkans, and is still remembered as a key moment in the clash between Christians and Muslims in the region.
A firecracker was thrown at Nikolic, forcing his bodyguards to gather around the president and escort him quickly from the scene in a bulletproof convoy.
“Today, our neighbour Albanians are building houses and are farming. I wish them luck but want them to know that they are building on Serb soil,” Nikolic, a hardline nationalist-turned-pro-EU politician said before he was interrupted.
Serbia stopped short of recognising Kosovo’s independence in last year’s EU-brokered agreement but accepted the Pristina government’s control over the territory. It was rewarded with the opening of EU accession talks.
Ethnic Serbs number around 120,000 in Kosovo’s population of 1.8 million.
Kosovo’s declaration of independence has been recognised by more than 100 countries, including the United States and most EU member states.
Kosovo Arrests 18 Over Mitrovica Barricade Unrest (BIRN, 30 June 2014)
Kosovo Police arrested 18 people after an outbreak of unrest this month in the divided town of Mitrovica amid protests at the blockade of the main bridge by local Serbs.
Police said that those arrested are suspected hooliganism, attacking officials, theft and illegal possession of weapons.
The arrests followed violent incidents on June 22 when Kosovo Albanians, angered by new barricades erected by Serbs on the main bridge in Mitrovica, clashed with police. Several protestors and 13 police officers were injured, while protestors set six vehicles on fire and damaged 25 others.
The protesters had gathered in response to a new barricade set up by Kosovo Serbs. About two weeks ago, the Serbs initially dismantled a huge roadblock, but replaced it with a construction which they called the ‘Peace Park’.
Mitrovica’s main bridge separates what are now two municipalities: South Mitrovica, largely inhabited by Albanians, and North Mitrovica, where mostly Serbs live.
The unrest has underscored underlying tensions despite successful EU-facilitated talks, which have made strides in normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
The municipal assembly of Mitrovica South has announced an extraordinary meeting on Monday to discuss the violence earlier this month.
Kosovo Serb Politician’s Custody Extended Again (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 27 June 2014)
Oliver Ivanovic, accused of war crimes against Kosovo Albanians and murders after the 1990s conflict, will be held in custody for two more months despite Belgrade’s protests.
A pre-trial judge at the Mitrovica Basic Court on Friday extended Kosovo Serb politician Ivanovic’s detention on remand until August 26, angering officials in Belgrade who insist that the case against him is politically motivated.
“The pre-trial judge found that the risk of flight and the risk that the defendant might influence witnesses if released continued to exist and that there are no less severe measures that could be imposed at this time,” the EU-rule-of law mission, EULEX said in a statement.
Ivanovic was arrested in January on suspicion of involvement in war crimes against ethnic Albanians, and in murders committed after the 1990s conflict.
He was detained on suspicion of involvement in war crimes and in violence in 2000 in which ten Kosovo Albanians were killed and many more wounded and driven from their homes.
Ivanovic at the time was a leading “Bridge Watcher”, one of the hardline Serbs who patrolled the main bridge in Mitrovica dividing the town into Serbian and Albanian sectors.
The head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, said that the extension of Ivanovic’s custody was a “bad signal for the rule of law in Kosovo”.
“It is worrying that Ivanovic was arrested in January under suspicion that he took part in crimes in Kosovo in 1999 and 2000, while the indictment against him has still not been issued, which proves our doubts that this is a political process,” Duric said.
Barroso: Accession process for Sebia is moving at a good pace (New Europe, 30 June 2014)
President of the European Commission Manuel Barroso met with Tomislav Nikolic, President of the Republic of Serbia on June 29 in Belgrade. President Barroso welcomed the priority given to economic reform saying that the accession process for Serbia is moving at a good pace. Commission President said:
“Good afternoon,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to thank President Nikolic for his very warm welcome and once again, Mr President, my thanks for your sincere words regarding my personal commitment and commitment of European Commission to Serbia and to the European path that was decided for Serbia by Serbian people.
President Nikolic and I have had a fruitful meeting today, very open and friendly conversation where we have discussed Serbia’s relations with the EU on the path towards the membership in the EU. Serbia has entered a new phase in the process with the opening of negotiations exactly one year ago, following the decision of the European Council, which was an unanimous decision of the Member States taken after a proposal was made in this direction by the European Commission.
The accession process is moving at a good pace, thanks to the commitment and dedication of the Serbian negotiation teams and its leaders. I have expressed to the president that the country can rely on the full support of the Commission to continue in this Our support is also given to the ambitious reform programme that the government has committed to.
With regard to the reform programme, we welcome the priority given to economic reform as well as the continued attention paid to ensuring the rule of law, the fight against corruption and organised crime and the reform of the public administration. We believe that even independently from the EU accession process this is important for Serbian people, by its own merits – the importance of having rule of law in a modern country, European country like Serbia.
The EU also stands by Serbia in times of pain. I would like to reiterate my greatest sympathy for the victims of the floods and to present my condolences to the families and friends of the victim. During my visit to Obrenovac today, I have been impressed by the great courage and will of the Serbian people in the face of this tragedy. I visited a school that has more than 1500 students, pupils and the teachers and staff are now rebuilding the school. That is a great example.
I am proud that 22 EU Member States and the European Commission were present alongside Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in this largest European civil protection intervention in Europe ever. It demonstrated in concrete terms the solidarity of the EU to Serbia and its citizens.
Much work still lies ahead and I wish to stress that you can fully count on the support of the EU. The Commission – together with France and Slovenia – is organising a high level Donors Conference on 16 July in Brussels. It is an open conference to all those who want to participate. We hope to make a success out of this event and mobilise additional funding for the needs that are now being assessed in Serbia and also Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I commend the significant progress that has been made in relations to normalising relations with Kosovo. This process of normalization is important. We expect both Belgrade and Pristina to ensure that this progress continues.
Let me say again, as I sad to President Nikolic that we think the role of Serbia is critically important for the enlarged EU. You have a unique role in the western Balkans region, so the fact I came here is precisely a way – also before the end of my mandate – to reiterate on behalf of the European Commission and the EU that we believe this process can be successful so that it can, if this is the wish as it has been stated by Serbian people, bring you to the EU membership. We believe this is going to happen. Some decisions of course are still needed but it can happen if there is political will on both sides as I am sure there is. The fact that you are making progress in this also sends signal to the whole region.
And one personal remark – I became President of the Commission in 2004 just after the big enlargement. So at the beginning of 2004 we were 15 Member States, today we are 28. This shows that despite all the difficulties we are consistent in showing our openness to countries of the Western Balkans and countries of Europe that want to join. I am sure this is also goal of Serbia as it has been sovereignly decided by the Serbian people
Mr. President,
It was a pleasure to meet you again in this new phase of EU-Serbia relations. We look forward to continue our very good cooperation.
Thank you.”
President Barroso also met with Prime minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic. Commission President said following the meeting:
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be back in Serbia, a country which so clearly belongs to our European family. I have just met with Prime Minister Vucic and I look forward to continuing our discussions over lunch with other Government members.
I have congratulated the Prime Minister on his recent appointment and conveyed to him my high expectations regarding the future course of action of his Government.
I´d like to thank you, Prime Minister, for your kind words regarding my commitment to the accession process of Serbia and for the work of the European Commission over the past years.
It is true that we are strong alliance for the strategic goal that is accession of Serbia to the EU.
My visit comes exactly one year after the decision of the European Council to follow the recommendation of the European Commission to open accession negotiations with Serbia.
Today, I want to acknowledge the substantial progress Serbia has made on its path towards EU membership. We have entered a new phase in our partnership.
The Prime Minister and I have been discussing the programme of the Government and I welcome its reform priorities and EU aspirations. I also believe it is positive that accession negotiations have been proceeding smoothly so far. Already 18 Chapters – more than half of all 35 Chapters – entered the so-called “screening” process.
I also welcome the Government’s continued attention to improving the rule of law, fight against corruption and organised crime and also commitment fundamental rights, as well as to the reform of the public administration.
One of the key lessons learned from past enlargements of the EU is: the accession process must be transparent and inclusive. After all, EU membership is not an endeavour of a few but the ambition of many, I am sure, of the overwhelming majority of Serbia’s people.
The process must therefore involve all key stakeholders, including parliament, independent regulatory bodies, as well as civil society. That is why in discussion with the Prime Minister I welcomed the launch of the National Convention on EU in Serbia on 20 June.
The European Commission is ready to help, and support will continue to be available in the period 2014-2020 through our EU Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). It will have a strong focus on the rule of law together with enhancing economic governance and competitiveness. Support to infrastructure investments in transport, energy and environment sectors will also be included.
While this is a time of hope and success for Serbia, it is also, unfortunately, a time of pain and despair. Serbia has recently been hit by the worst floods in a century. My sympathies are with the citizens who suffered so severely.
Later today, I will be paying a visit to Obrenovac where I will meet with some of the courageous citizens who were so terribly hit by this tragedy. I wish to emphasise that the EU has been and will continue to stand by Serbia’s side throughout these difficulties.
22 EU Member States and the European Commission have sent assistance to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in May 2014 in the largest European civil protection intervention in Europe ever. We will now plan together mid-to-long term reconstruction and disaster prevention. A Donor Conference will take place on 16 July in Brussels. This shows the strong solidarity of the EU with Serbia.
Let me conclude that in the EU we consider Serbia as a reliable partner and a pillar for the stability and development of South Eastern Europe.
I would like to commend the impressive results in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. Both parties have shown political foresight, courage and vision in reaching a number of agreements and also results on implementation.
This is one of the priority issues for the EU. We expect the two sides to continue delivering results in the implementation. The high level meetings will hopefully resume soon as there is still much work to be done.
Prime Minister,
You have just asked me and the European Commission to be objective in the assessment of the progress in Serbia. I want to reaffirm that we will be objective and supportive on the path that you and Serbia decided for yourselves.
You have recently said that “the European path is the only possible one for Serbia” and that your “goal is the European Union”. I couldn’t agree more! The European Union remains deeply committed to work with you and your team to this end, to support your country in what was your decision.
I thank you for your attention.”
Serbia could go bankrupt, says PM (Telegraph.co.UK, by Camilla Turner, 28 June 2014)
Aleksander Vucic says unless he passes his deeply unpopular package of fiscal consolidation and economic reforms in the next few months, the country will go bust
While publicly, the Serbian government are pushing for EU accession by 2020, Mr Vucic admitted that this is by no means a given.
Serbia could go bankrupt within a year and end up “in the position of Greece”, the country’s new prime minister has warned.
Aleksandar Vucic, who was sworn in on April 27, said that unless he passes his deeply unpopular package of fiscal consolidation and economic reforms in the next few months, the country will go bust and will be further away from its European Union dreams than ever.
“Of course we will have huge opposition,” he said. “But I don’t care. We have to do it. And we are going to do it.
“I am a rat in a corner right now. I have nowhere to go. We have to fight for reforms and we have to fight for our survival.”
Mr Vucic, a minister in the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic’s hard-line nationalist government of the late Nineties, won a landslide after re-styling himself as a pro-European reformer.
In order to convince EU chiefs that Serbia is worthy of EU accession, Mr Vucic must take radical steps to overhaul its flailing economy. These include reining in the public sector, reforming the over-stretched pension system and cutting subsidies to loss making state-owned companies.
“We’re a fast ageing nation and I don’t know how we’ll pay all the pensioners,” said Mr Vucic.
“We have more pensioners than those employed, and among those employed more than 50pc are in the public sector. Who can endure that?”
But Mr Vucic said the biggest obstacle to economic reform was the “mind-set” of the Serbian people, whose sense of entitlement to public funds ran deep within the national psyche as a hang-over from the socialist era.
Mr Vucic’s proposed reforms include a law to liberalise the labour market, which has been staunchly opposed by unions.
The government is also rushing through a law on privatisation, under which 584 state-owned companies will either be privatised or liquidated by the end of 2016.
While publicly, the Serbian government are pushing for EU accession by 2020, Mr Vucic admitted that this is by no means a given.
“We will do our best, we will do our homework,” he said. “It is up to us to make reforms. But not everything will depend on us.”
Serbia’s path of accession to the EU does not just present economic challenges but political ones too.
The Ukraine crisis, which has heightened tensions between Russia and the rest of Europe, could put Serbia in an uncomfortable position.
“I have to take care of the interest of our state,” said Mr Vucic, who will visit Moscow in ten days’ time.
“We owe €250m (£200m) to Gazprom — they will ask us for that. We are very dependable on their gas price, that’s all I can say.
“Of course we would like [to maintain ties] with Russia because of our tradition and history. But our main political goal, our main political target, is to be part of the EU.”
In contrast to Mr Vucic’s outlook, the Minister of Economy, Dusan Vujovic, remains optimistic. “This is a lifetime opportunity,” said Mr Vujovic, a former World Bank official.
“Serbia is at the lowest point in terms of asset prices and probably at the highest point in terms of the upside.
“All countries that are on the EU accession path have a huge increase in investment.”
30 Jun 14
Six Albanians Jailed for Macedonia ‘Terror’ Murders (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 30 June 2014)
Six alleged ethnic Albanian Muslim extremists have been jailed for life for terrorism over the killings of five ethnic Macedonians in Skopje – a case that raised ethnic tensions in the country.
Alil Demiri, Afrim Ismailovic, Agim Ismailovic, Fejzi Aziri, Haki Aziri and Sami Ljuta were found guilty on Monday of killing five ethnic Macedonians at Orthodox Easter in 2012 and given the longest possible sentence for terrorism offences, life in prison.
The court said that the murder was planned and carried out in a “vicious manner”.
A seventh man, Rami Sejdi, who was initially charged with helping the group commit the murders, was acquitted. Alil Demiri and Afrim Ismailovic were sentenced in absentia because they are in prison in Kosovo, serving jail terms for the illegal possession of weapons.
The killings sparked violent protests back in 2012 and police on Monday visibly boosted their presence around the court and in central Skopje amid fears of another outbreak of inter-ethnic unrest after the passing of the verdict.
Judge Ivica Stefanovski called for the court’s decision to be received peacefully.
“Despite the different ethnicity of the defendants and the victims, the verdict should not affect inter-human relations,” Stefanovski said.
Prosecutor Gordana Geskovska told the court at the beginning of this month that the murder was an act of terror carried out in order to provoke ethnic strife between the Macedonian majority and the country’s large Albanian minority.
But defence lawyer Naser Raufi said in his closing arguments however that the seven accused had nothing to do with the murder, dismissing prosecution claims that the defendants were terrorists and raising doubts about the forensic material presented by the prosecution.
According to the charges, the two fugitives, Alil Demiri and Afrim Ismailovic, killed five Macedonians with automatic rifles near Skopje during Orthodox Easter in 2012, while the other five men provided logistical support.
The corpses of Filip Slavkovski, Aleksandar Nakjevski, Cvetanco Acevski and Kire Trickovski, all aged between 18 and 20, were discovered on April 12, 2012. Their bodies had been lined up and appeared to have been executed.
The body of 45-year-old Borce Stevkovski was found a short distance away from the others.
News of the murder raised ethnic tensions, after groups of ethnic Macedonians staged protests, some of which turned violent, blaming the killings on members of the country’s large Albanian minority community.
During a recent visit to Macedonia, the OSCE’s High Commissioner on National Minorities, Astrid Thors, said she was worried that the trial could spark further tension.
“We will recommend to political leaders to make a joint call for restraint and for calm in order to avoid any disturbances,” Thors said.
But in the days before the verdict, no senior political leader made any appeal for calm.
In 2001, Macedonia went through a brief armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the security forces. The conflict ended the same year with the signing of a peace deal that increased Albanian rights.
Albanians make up a quarter of the country’s 2.1 million population.
EU-Montenegro accession conference opens 3 chapters (New Europe, 29 June 2014)
The fourth meeting of the Accession Conference with Montenegro at the ministerial level was held in Luxembourg on June 24. It opened negotiations on Chapters 4 (Free movement of capital), 31 (Foreign security and defence policy) and 32 (Financial control), the government of Montenegro said in a press release.
In addition, the conference confirmed at a ministerial level the opening of Chapters 7 (Intellectual property law) and 10 (Information society and media), which were considered at the Accession Conference with Montenegro at the Deputy Level, held in Brussels on March 31.
The EU delegation was led by Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos. The Montenegrin delegation was led by Montenegro’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and European Integration Igor Luksic. The European Commission was represented by EU Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Štefan Füle.
With the conference on June 24, out of a total of 35 negotiation chapters, 12 chapters have now been opened for negotiations of which two chapters have already been provisionally closed. Further Accession Conferences will be planned, as appropriate, in order to take the process forward in the second half of 2014. The accession negotiations were launched in June 2012.
Regarding the opening of negotiations on Chapter 4, 31 and 32, the European Union has closely examined Montenegro’s present state of preparations. Based on the understanding that Montenegro has to continue to make progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis in these chapters, the EU noted that there are benchmarks that need to be met for provisional closure of these chapters.
In addition, the EU underlined that it would devote particular attention to monitoring all specific issues mentioned in its common positions. Monitoring of progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis will continue throughout the negotiations. If necessary, the EU will revisit these chapters.
Extend Nato’s umbrella to Montenegro and Macedonia (Washington Post, by Michael Haltzel, 29 June 2014)
This move will demonstrate that Moscow does not exercise a hidden veto over Nato membership
In reacting to Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine, US President Barack Obama has reassured exposed Nato members Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia of firm US support, but he has shown little inclination to show needed leadership by putting another integral element of Nato policy on the agenda of September’s Cardiff summit: enlargement of the alliance. Obama’s hesitation, which has allowed Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to put off the question of enlargement until next year, is unwise and unnecessary.
Nato enlargement, a bipartisan effort that has spanned the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, has been one of the most successful US foreign policy achievements of the past two decades. As a result of their countries joining Nato, more than 100 million Central and Eastern Europeans in 12 nations from Estonia to Albania can freely elect their own governments and pursue national priorities without fear of foreign invasion.
Moreover, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the alliance has benefited from the contributions of the new members, even if few of them are yet spending at least 2 per cent of their gross domestic product on defence, the Nato target. In the face of Moscow’s destabilisation of Ukraine, one can only imagine the mood of the Baltic states and Poland if they were not protected by Nato’s Article 5 common defence guarantee.
Two Balkan countries — Macedonia and Montenegro — are ready and willing but so far unable to join Nato. Far to the north, pro-accession sentiment in two Nordic countries is growing. Finland’s new prime minister, Alexander Stubb, is an advocate of joining Nato, and Helsinki recently signed a wide-ranging memorandum of understanding with the alliance. Stubb’s position reflects a widespread belief in Finland that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has endangered the country’s security. Similar sentiments are also increasingly heard in Sweden, a fellow European Union member. Both are Nato partner countries that took part in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo and sent contingents to Afghanistan, where they suffered combat fatalities.
Enlargement is not a peripheral issue. In the North Atlantic Treaty that created Nato in April 1949, enlargement was enshrined as a fundamental element. Article 10 states that by unanimous agreement the alliance may invite to membership “any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.”
Nonetheless, there is reluctance in a few European capitals to proceed with further enlargement, principally out of fear of alienating Russia, which routinely rails against the alliance, usually invoking Ukraine, even though Kiev is no longer interested in membership.
Exhibit A is the case of little Montenegro, widely considered qualified to join since a successful reorganisation of its intelligence services has been certified by the CIA. Its inclusion would make the entire northern shore of the Mediterranean Nato territory, from Turkey to Spain. Still, last week in Brussels, Rasmussen declared that the alliance would not assess Montenegro’s candidacy until 2015, rhetorically attempting to soften the blow by adding that “no third country has a veto over Nato enlargement.”
Macedonia was certified by the alliance as qualified for membership six years ago, but it has been vetoed by Greece because of a dispute over its constitutional name. Intent on being a de facto ally, Macedonia enthusiastically participates in Nato operations. Relative to population, its contingent was one of the largest in Afghanistan, where its troops acquitted themselves well in combat.
Georgia, denied a membership action plan six years ago at the Nato summit, fervently hoped to get one at Cardiff. Key European allies, traumatised by the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, are blocking it, and Tbilisi’s candidacy seems stalled even as it successfully implements military and civilian reforms. Georgia will have to be satisfied with an enhanced aid package.
In the 1990s, Russian leaders, psychologically wounded by the collapse of the Soviet empire, opposed the idea of former Warsaw Pact allies joining Nato, but rational discussion was possible because they knew that the western alliance had no offensive intentions. It was only with the ascent of Vladimir Putin, who needs an external enemy to justify his authoritarian domestic policies, that ferocious anti-Nato propaganda came to the fore. The Kremlin now routinely pushes the narrative that Nato promised Russia not to expand, a myth disproven by several scholars.
Even with stricter economic sanctions, Washington may be unable to reverse Russia’s increasingly bellicose actions in Ukraine. The negative geopolitical consequences would be compounded if Moscow were to cow Nato into abandoning one of its core missions. Despite Rasmussen’s declaration, the Obama administration still has time to make Cardiff an enlargement summit by persuading remaining sceptical European allies to agree to extend membership to Montenegro and jointly to exert strong pressure on both Greece and Macedonia to compromise on the name issue.
The accession of Montenegro and Macedonia would be a tangible proof that Article 10 is alive and well, demonstrate that Moscow does not exercise a hidden veto over Nato membership and encourage other potential aspirants such as Finland and Sweden by showing that the door to membership remains open.
Michael Haltzel is a senior fellow at the Centre for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
