LOCAL PRESS

Criticism over Kosovo and Ukraine (Novosti)

The new report by the European Commission on Serbia’s progress will be mostly positive,but in at least three segments the Belgrade administration will not get a positive mark: the implementation of the Brussels agreement, justice and human rights, as well as harmonization with the EU foreign policy. The writing of the report is in its final phase, Novosti learns, and the 50-page document will be published in the first half of October. Most of the criticism, according this, will relate to Chapters 23 and 24 – justice and security and human rights. It will be noted that the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg receives most complaints from Serbian citizens, as well as the unsatisfactory level of physical access to justice – the distance from the nearest court is sometimes 80 kilometers. Novosti writes that the part about normalization of relations with Pristina will have a series of complaints about delays in implementing the Brussels agreement. The Serbian authorities will be demanded the completion of integration of the Serb judiciary in northern Kosovo into the Pristina system and continuation of the dialogue as soon as possible.
There has not yet been agreement in Brussels on the exact wording of the section that relates to Chapter 31 – foreign policy and security. “The hard line in the current Brussels administration insists that this part of the report contains a clear recommendation that Serbia should join EU decisions and impose sanctions on Russia, but a more neutral option will probably be used – calling on Belgrade to gradually harmonize its policies with the EU.

Miscevic: Objective screening report of Chapter 23 (Novosti)

The European Commission’s report on the screening of Chapter 23, relating to the rule of law, and which noted certain shortcomings, does not come as a surprise, because it was based on the information that was passed to Brussels by the Belgrade administration, the Head of the team for negotiations with the EU Tanja Miscevic stated at the constitutive session of the working group of the National Convent on the EU, held in the Serbian parliament. In the discussion on the screening of Chapter 23, Miscevic said that since the moment when the text of the report was formulated in April, a lot has been done in the process of judiciary reform, especially the legislation domain. “The next step is the making of the action plans, in order to implement the recommendations and correct the shortcomings. The first version of the plan will be presented in Brussels in September,” she explained. According to Miscevic, in the segment the changes to the Serbian Constitution were not underlined as a prerequisite for the opening of Chapter 23 in the accession talks, but it is necessary to have a plan ready for the moment when the changes are made. She specified that the Ministry of Justice had already formed a working group that discussed with the European Commission all elements that should be changed in the Constitution. The coordinator of the National Convent on the EU, Natasa Drgojlovic from the European Movement in Serbia has reminded that Chapter 23 will be among the first to be opened and the last to be closed, and that EU membership imparts the obligation on Serbia to harmonize its legislation with the legal heritage of the EU. The working group for Chapter 23 has been formed as part of the National Convent, which gathers hundreds of organizations that monitor the profess of negotiations between the EU and Serbia, while offering comments and representing the ideas and suggestions from the civil society in that process.

REGIONAL PRESS

Dodik: Dayton, or no B&H at all (Oslobodjenje)

“B&H will either return to its source Dayton authorities, or it will cease to exist,” the President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik said. “Dayton or no B&H,” he says, adding that this is the framework of political action. He again accused B&H, or “some organs in Sarajevo,” of affecting the development of the RS. In this sense, he noted the South Stream project, highways, the Stanari thermoelectric plant, and condemned some B&H organs of insisting on “irrational solutions” and blocking the projects. “Everything tells us that B&H is an obstacle to economic development and we will come out with a precise plan of how to get out of it,” he said. In a statement to reporters after discussion with the DNS leader Marko Pavic, Dodik said that all aims that the governing coalition in the RS put forward on coming to power in 2006 have been achieved, and that they have finished the first and moved into the second phase. It was fulfilled, he says, that he stopped the derogation of the RS and the transfer of competencies from the entity to the B&H level, and returned the subjectivity of the RS, “which is developing in the best possible way.” Today no one disputes, he says, the significant position of the RS in all political processes in B&H. After this meeting it was said that the unity of the governing coalition cannot be called into question, even after the elections.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo Victims’ Families Boycott Serbian Officers’ Trial (BIRN, by Gordana Andric, 6 August 2014)

Relatives of people killed in the village of Trnje in 1999 they would not participate in the murder trial of two Serbian officers because Kosovo lawyers representing them have been barred.

Kosovo’s Humanitarian Law Centre said on Tuesday that the families would not take part in the trial in Belgrade of former Yugoslav Army officers Pavle Gavrilovic and Ranko Kozlin, who are charged with killing at least 27 women, children and elderly people in Trnje in 1999.

The families are staging the boycott because judge Mirjana Ilic, the head of the Serbian Special Court’s war crimes office, has barred their lawyers because they are registered with the bar association in Kosovo, which Serbia does not recognise.

“Kosovo lawyers have so far represented victims without any issues, and the Humanitarian Law Centre believes that [judge Ilic’s] decision was not based on legal grounds,” said the Centre in a letter sent to the judge and to media.

According to the law, only members of Serbia’s bar association can work in courts in the country. But until recently, both Kosovo and Serbian lawyers acted in courts in both countries, and their membership of either of the bar associations was not questioned.

It is believed that the Serbian court’s move was made in retaliation for the decision by the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo to deny a Serbian lawyer the right to represent Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic, who is charged with war crimes.

Preliminary hearings in the Trnje case started in February this year, but the trial has run into several other problems, with defendants sometimes not turning up for hearings, claiming that they were ill or that they were not properly informed that they had to attend.

Serbian Govt Falls Short on Reform Pledges (BIRN, by Gordana Andric, 5 August 2014)

In its first 100 days, the Serbian government has only fulfilled a handful of the tasks it set itself when taking office, a new report by BIRN shows.

Research conducted by BIRN Serbia shows that out of 29 promises that Serbian government pledged to meet while taking office, only two have been completely fulfilled.

The government adopted a new Labour Law in July and has introduced stricter control over public procurements.

The research monitored the government’s action on the promises made in five areas that citizens perceived as crucial – public finance, the economy, corruption, education and health.

While some progress has been made in fulfilling about half of the promises, in the fields of education and health, nothing has been done, or started, the research says.

“Although there were some reform efforts, mainly regarding legislative changes, matters are far from ideal,” BIRN Serbia report states.

Jelena Bojovic, from the National Alliancefor Local Economic Development, NALED, said the first 100 days of the government had been marked with “great instability”.

“The period was marked by constant changes in regulations, new drafts and new proposals of the laws, new people at the forefront of the ministries. Great instability is a problem for the economy,” Bojovic said on August 5 at a conference organised by BIRN Serbia.

Nemanja Nenadic, programme director at Transparency Serbia, the local branch of international watchdog organisation, said the fight against corruption had not been kept in due focus.

“When it comes to fight against corruption, the period has been marked by lack of transparency regarding government’s deals with investors. This refers not only to deals made by this government, but also to deals made before 2012,” Nenadic said.

He added that a lack of transparency concerning the government’s business operations with foreign partners was worrying as the constitution grants inter-governmental agreements high legal status than local laws.

“The issue is that the constitution does not set boundaries on what can be determined in inter-governmental agreements,” he said.

Nenadic said the government had been using inter-governmental agreements to make deals between Serbian national carrier Jat Airways and Etihad of the United Arab Emirates, for example, as well as for the deal for real estate in the Belgrade Waterfront project.

In this way, the government bypassed Serbian law on Public-Private Partnerships, as well as Privatisation Law and Law on Public Companies.

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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.