LOCAL PRESS

Draft ZSO still kept secret (Danas)

The long-awaited technical negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina on the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) in Kosovo and Metohija are supposed to start today in Brussels with the examination of the draft ZSO. The talks are supposed to last several days, because Brussels insists on intensification of the technical dialogue, Danas unofficially learns in the negotiating circles. Nearly nothing is known about the draft ZSO, as well as about President Nikolic’s platform for Kosovo and Metohija, so it is even speculated that it actually doesn’t exist. Belgrade claims that the Management Team for the formation of the ZSO is the only one in charge of that document, according to the Agreement on the Implementation of the Brussels agreement, and that it is kept secret for strategic reasons. Diplomatic circles speculate that one should also expect its Brussels version, but do not exclude the possibility of Pristina perhaps coming out with its own version, although the Ministry for Local Self-Government in the Kosovo government blessed the draft as early as in 2013. Belgrade hopes there will be no new surprises with Pristina, which had already postponed once the negotiations on the ZSO planned for 12 May. Two weeks ago, Pristina requested the postponing of the talks on the ZSO, which, at the same time, it publicly conditioned with the agreement on energy and telecommunications, allegedly over the announced debate in the Kosovo Assembly on the law on the special war crimes court in Kosovo and Metohija, which was also in the meantime moved to 29 May. The opening of the technical dialogue on the ZSO coincided not only with the politically delicate debate on the special court, but also with the tensions on the ground after the recent murder of members of the Liberation National Army from Kosovo in the clashes with the Macedonian police in Kumanovo. Most of the killed Kosovo Albanians from this terrorist organization are supposed to be buried today in Pristina. So far, nobody has reacted either in Belgrade, or in Pristina, including the international administration, to the fact that uniformed men with insignia of the officially disbanded KLA appeared at the funeral of one of the commanders killed in Kumanovo, held in Decani over the weekend. The talks on the ZSO are being opened immediately after the deadline for job applications for judges and prosecutors in Kosovo and Metohija expired last night. For the time being it is unknown whether the recent talks behind closed doors of the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric and Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic with Serbian judges and prosecutors in Kosovo and Metohija yielded results, because almost none of the Serbs applied for the jobs before that “briefing”, which would have threatened the implementation of the Brussels agreement. According to Danas’ unofficial information, Djuric and Selakovic promised the Serbian judges that their material status would be ensured with a special law.

Reactions of the right-wing opposition

The Patriotic Bloc of Kosovo and Metohija, comprised of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Dveri and several citizen associations, assessed yesterday that Serbian President Tomislav Niolic will give up his new platform for Kosovo and Metohija, just as he has done with his first platform. The statement recalls that “Nikolic absolutely supported the Brussels agreement, the setting of borders between Kosovo and Metohija and Serbia proper, abolishment of Serbian institutions in the province, membership of Kosovo in nearly all international institutions and organizations, because of which the question is raised as to what is the real purpose of the new platform”. The Patriotic Bloc claims that the President and Prime Minister are “all the time alienating Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia with seven-mile-steps”. The State Building Movement of Serbia warned yesterday that Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, with his statement that he will take a stand on Nikolic’s platform when he returns from the US, “is training the Serbian public to accept as a normal thing that foreigners are editing their state policy”.

Eight-four applications for judges and prosecutors (RTS)

Eight-four candidates applied for judges and prosecutors of Serb and other non-majority nationalities applied for the courts and prosecutions in Kosovo, the President of the Kosovo Judicial Council Enver Peci told Radio and Television of Serbia. However, according to initial information, not all of them are from courts and prosecutions that are working in Kosovo according to the Serbian government system. Peci says that 58 people who applied for judges are from the courts that work in the Serbian judiciary system in Kosovo. Twelve people applied for the prosecution. “There are also those who applied but are not from the parallel courts and prosecutions,” said Peci, adding that EULEX needs to send complete applications to the Judicial Council and Prosecution Council.

Gasic presents report on the work of Defense Ministry: Army prepared and capable to respond to all possible threats (Tanjug)

The Serbian Army has undertook all measures for preventing terrorist activities from the region spilling over to Serbia, while there have not been endangered members of the Serbian Army at the administrative line with Kosovo and Metohija and in the Ground Safety Zone, Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic told the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Defense and Internal Affairs. Gasic reiterated in the report on the work of this ministry in the first three months of this year that the Serbian Army is prepared and capable to respond to all possible threats, and that an estimate of challenges and risks to Serbia’s security is being constantly conducted.

Fate of Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo and Metohija since 1998 needs to be established (Tanjug)

The Association of Families of Kidnapped and Killed Civilians, Soldiers and Policemen in Kosovo and Metohija asked Serbian Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman Ivica Dacic to appeal to the EU, USA and the UN to establish the fate of Serbs kidnapped by Kosovo Albanian terrorists since 1998. The Association has announced that it has presented corresponding video tapes to The Hague Tribunal and the Serbian Prosecution on Serbs kidnapped from the camps of Likovac, Lapusnik, Malisevo and other similar locations. It is emphasized that it was necessary to charge former leaders of KLA on the basis of command responsibility, for war crimes committed against Serbs, Roma and Albanians.

Kosovo Minister on a visit to Bujanovac and Presevo (Beta)

Kosovo Minister for Education, Science and Technology Arsim Bajrami is visiting Bujanovac and Presevo. Bajrami talked in Bujanovac with the Chairman of the National Council of Albanians Jonuz Musliu, Mayor Nagip Arifi, and MPs Shaip Kamberi and Riza Halimi, and in Presevo with Mayor Ragmi Mustafa. Bajrami said after talks that a “better quality education according to European standards is needed, based on tolerance, understanding and mutual respect” and announced support “for achieving a better quality education in the region”. Serbian MP from the Movement for Democratic Action (PDD) Shaip Kamberi told Beta that he requested in talks with the Kosovo Minister for problems in education in the Albanian language in Bujanovac and Presevo to be included on the agenda of the Brussels negotiations between the government of Serbia and Kosovo. “We discussed key topics in education, the lack of text books, curriculum and programs, as well as the recognition of diplomas (from the Pristina University) and we requested that these topics be discussed in Brussels. Recognition of diplomas has already been discussed in Brussels, but the reached agreement is implemented slowly in practice,” said Kamberi. He says that 50 to 60 percent of text books lack in elementary schools in the Albanian language in Bujanovac and Presevo, while in high schools there is not a single adequate text book for teaching in the Albanian language. He says that text books are being delivered from Belgrade for all schools in the Serbian language in Kosovo without any problems according to new curriculums, because of which he proposed to the Kosovo Minister for Pristina to advocate similar conditions for supplying text books for Albanian students in the municipalities of Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja. Arsim Bajrami is the first Kosovo Minister who officially visited Bujanovac, while the then Kosovo minister for EU Integration Vlora Chitaku visited Presevo a year ago.

Valon Kabashi, first identified member of the Albanian National Army (RTS)

Valon Kabashi from Orahovac, who was killed during the clashes in Kumanovo, is the first identified member of the Albanian National Army (ANA), an organization that the United Nations declared terrorist. ANA is on the “black lists” of the US and EU. Before Kabashi, international officials claimed that Ljirim Jakupi, known as Commander Nazi, is one of the chief ANA commanders. After the clashes with Macedonian special units near the Brodec village at the end of 2007, Jakupi and Ramadan Shiti escaped to Kosovo where they were arrested on two occasions. In the operation of Macedonian special units eight members of this group were killed and large quantities of weapons were seized, including modern anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, and Jakupi, allegedly wounded, managed to escape to Kosovo. ANA declared itself for the first time in September 1999 with the demand that all members of peacekeeping forces of Slavic origin withdraw from Kosovo. UNMIK declared ANA a terrorist organization in 2003 after the attempt of mining the railway near Zvecan when two members of this organization were killed.

Dodik: Numerous controversies following Srebrenica (Novosti)

The President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik said that no one argues that a great crime took place in Srebrenica, but that he will never agree to the thesis that what happened in this town was a genocide. Dodik said that the Bosniak politicians supported by one part of the international community, persistently and coordinately insist on the thesis that genocide occurred in Srebrenica, in order to attempt to weaken the constitutional position of the RS. “Our position is clear. No one argues that what happened in Srebrenica is a crime, but not a genocide as Sarajevo insists. We regret that the crime was committed in that city and that many people were killed even though we have official information regarding the number of victims which is a lot smaller than the numbers mentioned by Bosniak politicians,” Dodik told Novosti. He stressed that numerous controversies are following the events that happened in July 1995 in Srebrenica. “Some of the allegations made by the foreigners and Bosniak politicians about this event are far from the truth. Srebrenica is unfortunately, consistently being used for manipulations aiming to strengthen the unitary concept and weaken the RS, and as 11 July is approaching, attacks from Sarajevo are more and more open,” said Dodik. Commenting the RS Vice President Ramiz Salkic’s move, of sending the draft resolution condemning the “genocide in Srebrenica”, to the RS Assembly, Dodik said that it is not realistic that the assembly would adopt this resolution. “As the RS President, I will not interfere in the work of the assembly. The MPs will vote as they think they should, but I am convinced that none of the RS parties will support Salkic’s proposal,” said Dodik. He added that he is not going to attend the marking of the 20^th anniversary of the crime in Srebrenica as long as the case is being politicized.

REGIONAL PRESS

Party members leaving SDS (Srna)

Nenad Stevandic, Vice President of the RS Assembly and now former member of the Main Board of the SDS, has resigned from all his positions and from the membership in this party. As he said, he will remain in the opposition and act as usual. Stevandic excluded any possibility of joining another party, and stressed that the SDS went into some kind of project which is going to support the transfer of authority from RS to the B&H level. “I’m fully aware that multiple sets of laws are under preparation that won’t be good for the RS, and we would face them to me in a tense situation, atmosphere of discord and on the brink of a conflict,” said Stevandic, adding that he does not want to be punished by the people because he did not warned them on time about it. Stevandic said that he believes that a few chairs that the SDS won at the B&H level are not worth of RS’ collapse. Asked if he is going to step down from the position of a Vice President of the RS Assembly and return the mandate, he said, it is out of the question to give the votes he won, as a gift to Mladen Bosic, the leader of the SDS, so they can be used for trade with Bakir Izetbegovic. He did not rule out the possibility to support the majority if the SDS eventually becomes able to form it, but as he said, that would be decided on only after the discussions with potential mandate holder. “I hope that this leadership is not going to survive too long, as it doesn’t represent the will of the members, but only their own bare interests for the seats at the B&H level, and I hope to have the opportunity to cooperate with all the honorable members in the near future,” wrote Stevandic in his resignation letter. In addition to him, the SDS in Banja Luka, in all probability will lose Marinko Dragisic too, a counselor of the party in the local parliament. Vice President of the City Board of the SDS Banja Luka Milenko Jacimovic also resigned from all party functions and left the SDS.

Cvijanovic: SDS has parted from RS and its people (Srna)

The International Secretary of the SNSD Zeljka Cvijanovic said that the story about the alleged threat to the parliamentary majority in the Republika Srpska (RS) Assembly is an artificially imposed issue. “All the laws which the RS government has offered, have been adopted, even some opposition politicians have voted for certain solution that have been proposed. By making noise about how the government is reportedly losing support in the RS Assembly, the SDS leadership is trying to divert attention from their own problems. Hard words have been exchanged between the top ranking officials of that party, and the partition process on those who work and those who do not work in the interest of RS has started,” said Cvijanovic. She stressed that the PDP is stirring the subject of the alleged change of parliamentary majority in the RS to draw attention from the fact that “the coalition, at the B&H level, is dangerously swinging”. “Quakes inside the SDS combined with disastrously bad relations between the Croat and Bosniak parties in the FB&H, are endangering the B&H level arrangement, which foreigners are trying to preserve in every way. These foreigners have long been frustrated by the fact that the RS always forms a government first after the elections, and that the RS institutions are for years the only ones truly function within the entire B&H. Everything else works on the principle of ‘push-pull’ or ‘one step forward – four steps back’,” said the international secretary of SNSD. She said that what the President of the SDS Mladen Bosic has offered the mandate to the current Mayor of Bijeljina, Mico Micic attempting to ‘patch the holes, in the SDS, that he made”. “I do not mean to sound sarcastic, but we were all deeply moved by Bosic’s ‘generosity’, in which he offers a place of a mandate holder, without providing the parliamentary majority. After all, Bosic couldn’t provide himself the majority, when he entered the election campaign as a pretender to that position, and at a time when the SDS was homogeneous. Now, after so many failures at the B&H level and decision that are harmful to the RS, they are not able to maintain what they got at the elections,” said Cvijanovic. She stressed that it is “a cheap trick with which Bosic is trying to stop the splitting of the party, knowing that Micic, despite being heavy defeated in the race for the SDS president, is not going to leave the party, so Bosic counts that he could use him like a bridge between the two divided sides”. “It is a matter of different political positions towards important issues between the two factions, and the fact that many in the SDS cannot reconcile with the pro-Bosnian politic led by the party leadership in Sarajevo.” When asked to comment on how she sees the politics led by the SDS, PDP and NDP at the B&H level and how dangerous is it for RS, Cvijanovic said that the SDS and its satellites at the B&H level lead the headless politics, that doesn’t enjoy the support of the general membership, which is why the turmoil in the SDS is expected. She estimated that Mladen Bosic and a couple of his associates are ready to meet any demands of political Sarajevo just to save the seats that Bakir Izetbegovic gave them. “These people from the SDS leadership have turned their backs on RS long time ago. We knew that there is no return or salvation for them, when foreigners began to write their political views and when Bakir Izetbegovic started to interpret and explain those views to the public instead of them,” said Cvijanovic. She added that “the SDS and its satellites at the B&H level have establish new practices where they ignore the positions and decisions of the RS institutions, bringing the long-term harm to RS”. “They would be capable of devastating the RS and destroying all of its institutions only to get even with Milorad Dodik and the SNSD, when they failed to beat them at the elections. The opposition in the RS cannot reconcile with the electoral defeat. In RS there are no strong blocs of Bosniak parties that would bring them to power, as they did at the B&H level. I do not know how many times we have to win the election for them to understand that they are the losers,” said Cvijanovic. She stressed that the SDS officials in Sarajevo simply cannot say a single word that would upset Bakir Izetbegovic, because their political destiny depends on him. If elections were held tomorrow, she adds, SNSD would achieve even better result than half a year ago and it would beat the SDS to their knees, because people, in the past few months, had the opportunity to see how the SDS has parted from the RS and its people, and the composition of the National Assembly would look significantly different.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia not “a servant to the EU” (New Europe, 25 May 2015)

Serbia. In an interview with TV B92 on Sunday, the Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, stated that he was in consensus with President Nikolic over the Kosovo issue and that the government was not “a servant” of the EU. During his interview he noted that Albania was an irredentist nation, implicitly referring to Edi Rama’s statement that the unification of Kosovo and Albania was “inevitable;” however, with a more conciliatory tone, the PM noted that Serbia would abstain from interfering in domestic matters in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and that the integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina would not be challenged. Regarding the “austerity front” the PM noted that he “fought like a lion” with the IMF, successfully opposing an increase in the price of electricity in Serbia. Serbia is implementing a tough austerity program and the PM, in which, he stated, he had “no support from the elite,” whilst he accused a media magnate, Dragan Vucicevic, of turning against him. Nonetheless, he also hinted that he was open to the possibility of holding elections and that he might not be the one leading his party, SNS, when they come. The latter statement was accompanied by the implicit warning that public opinion in Serbia is turning against the EU and that should the SNS abdicate its position in the government, Serbia’s orientation towards the EU would be “dramatically threatened.”In recent weeks PM Vukic has had to defend himself against the Seselj, the nationalist leader in trial in the Hague, who was granted temporary permission to return to Serbia on medical grounds. Seselj has challenged Vucic to arrest him, stating that he would not return voluntarily, and has called upon “all patriots” for the overthrow of the “traitors” – Nikolic and Vucic – government to prevent NATO and EU accession. Vucic has come to power on a tick of Euro-Atlantic integration, but has recently rejuvenating a “non-aligned” stance, going as far as sending Serbian troops to Moscow whilst other European leaders refused to attend the Victory Day March. Polls suggest that the extreme nationalist forces are expecting at least 20% in forthcoming elections and it is unclear whether the PM is trying to fortify the SNS constituency or he is turning genuinely to the right.

Serbian Prime Minister to Undertake Historic Visit to Albania (Agence France-Presse, 26 May 2015)

BELGRADE: Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will, on Wednesday, become the first Serbian government head to visit Albania, aiming to improve the fragile relations between the two Balkan nations. His visit comes six months after that of Albania’s Prime Minster Edi Rama to Belgrade – the first visit to Serbia by a Tirana government head for 68 years. In Tirana on Wednesday, Vucic will have talks with his counterpart before speaking the following day at an economic forum in which regional country leaders will participate. Relations between Serbians and Albanians are strained over the question of Kosovo, a territory with an ethnic Albanian majority that declared independence from Serbia in 2008, with the support of the United States, but remains unrecognised by Belgrade and its ally Russia, as well as others. Bilateral tensions have also been fuelled by claims of the ethnic Albanian minority in Serbia for more autonomy or even unification with Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority. “We want to deepen collaboration with Serbia and advance together on the path of peace, cooperation and integration in the EU,” Rama told AFP ahead of the visit. “I am convinced that Albania and Serbia, Albanians and Serbs, could together do for the Balkans what France and Germany did for Europe after World War II,” he said. Vucic said he was looking forward to the visit with optimism, stressing that the differences could only be solved through dialogue. For Serbian analyst Dusan Janjic “the improvement of relations between Tirana and Belgrade is the key for the stability in the Balkans.” Albanian political analyst Skender Minxhozi said that though the visit was an encouraging sign it alone “could not erase decades of hostilities and chill”.

Serbia fears a ‘Great Albania’

The relations between Serbs and Albanians have also remained strained because Belgrade fears a “Great Albania,” a nationalist project seeking to unite all Albanians in one state, including Kosovo and parts of Macedonia and Serbia where they make majority.A war between Serbian armed forces and pro-independence guerrilla movement in Kosovo in 1998-1999 was followed by a NATO bombing campaign to stop the crackdown of late president Slobodan Milosevic’s regime against ethnic Albanian population. The Serbian army and police were eventually forced by NATO to leave Kosovo, which in 2008 proclaimed independence. Serbia has ever since denounced what it claims to be a Tirana-sponsored “Great Albania” project, although both Albanian and Kosovo authorities assure that no such plan exists. Last November, during his visit to Belgrade, Rama called on Vucic to recognise the reality of Kosovo’s independence, provoking angry responses from his host and the Serbian public. Rama’s visit had been delayed for three weeks following trouble at a mid-October football match in Belgrade, a Euro 2016 qualifier between Serbia and Albania that had to be abandoned. Serb fans invaded the pitch and attacked Albania’s players after a pro-Albanian flag with a map of a “Great Albania” was flown over the stadium by a drone. Despite the friction, the two men agreed to continue with their contact and carry on working towards an improvement in relations between the two countries. Wednesday’s visit by Vucic comes at a time of tension elsewhere in the Balkans. Two weeks ago, Macedonian police clashed with an ethnic Albanian armed group, most of whose members were from Kosovo. 18 people were killed, including eight police officers.

Macedonian Record Bond Rout Lures Buyers as Economy Outperforms (Bloomberg, by Krystof Chamonikolas & Marton Eder, 25 May 2015)

For the more intrepid among investors, the record selloff in Macedonian bonds is already becoming an opportunity to buy. Landesbank Berlin Investment GmbH doubled its holdings of Macedonian debt last week. The former Yugoslav republic’s worst political crisis in more than a decade is unlikely to derail the economy’s convergence with the European Union even as yields soar, according to Lutz Roehmeyer, a money manager overseeing $1.1 billion at the German company. “The market is overreacting out of fear that the situation might spiral into a bigger geopolitical crisis similar to that in Ukraine — but that is ungrounded,” Roehmeyer said by phone on Thursday. “Macedonia has been a star reformer, doing all the right things to attract foreign investment. So I’m a buyer.” Roehmeyer is not alone with his optimism. Dmitri Barinov, who manages $2.6 billion of assets including Macedonian notes at Union Investment Privatfonds GmbH, says a further increase in yields would be a chance to add to holdings. Turmoil in the Balkan country escalated this month amid deadly clashes with Albanian rebels and as a wire-tapping scandal roiled Premier Nikola Gruevski’s government. Yields on Macedonia’s 500 million euros ($549 million) of July 2021 notes rose 59 basis points last week, the most since the security was issued last week, to 4.59 percent. The rate on debt maturing in December rose 158 basis points to 4.37 percent.

‘Additional Premium’

The International Monetary Fund warned last week that a prolonged crisis could curb foreign investment that has helped the country to double the size of its economy over the past decade and allowed it to keep its currency, the denar, pegged to the euro. The IMF earlier estimated the economic growth would accelerate to 3.9 percent next year from 3.8 percent in 2015.

“The concern is that an economic slowdown could hurt the banking sector and ultimately trigger capital flight,” Demetrios Efstathiou, a London-based strategist for emerging markets at ICBC Standard Bank Plc, said by phone on Thursday. “This probably won’t happen but the risk is higher now, and with most of the sovereign debt denominated in foreign currencies, bondholders demand an additional premium.” Macedonia’s foreign ministry vowed on Friday to respect ethnic minorities and keep pursuing EU and NATO membership after a threat to block its aspirations to join the military alliance by Albania, a NATO member.

‘Temporarily Volatile’

The country needs more international support to deal with the crisis so its efforts to join the EU can advance, Ivica Dacic, chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, told Serbian television RTS on Friday. Macedonian bonds are rated BB- at Standard & Poor’s, three steps below investment grade. The government’s budget gap will narrow to 3.8 percent of gross domestic product this year from 4.2 percent in 2014, taking its debt to 39 percent of GDP, European Commission estimates show. That’s less than a half of the debt burden projected for investment-rated Slovenia, another former Yugoslav republic that is now in the EU. “While the trading in Macedonian bonds may be temporarily volatile, the turmoil is unlikely to derail economic growth and prudent fiscal policy,” Union Privatfonds’ Barinov said.

Beating of Critical Macedonian Journalist Condemned (BIRN, by Meri Jordanovska, 25 May 2015)

The owner of a Macedonian news portal, Sase Ivanovski, was beaten up by masked men – the third violent incident involving journalists in the politically-tense country this month.

There was widespread condemnation of Friday’s attack on Ivanovski, a well-known and vociferous critic of the Macedonian government who runs the Maktel website and goes by the nickname ‘Politiko’. Ivanovski told BIRN that two unknown black-clad men wearing masks hit him on the head with metal bars in front of his building, but he managed to escape before suffering further injury. He said he believed the assault was politically motivated. “I know that the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is behind the attack. The attackers monitored me for couple of days, because I hardly go out at night. Finally, when I went out, they came out of the bushes and attacked me. They knew where are I lived and where I park my car,” Ivanovski said. After the attack, Ivanovski was taken to hospital with injuries to his head and back but is now recovering at home. “I’m afraid now. I can’t go out at night,” he added. The attack was condemned by the Association of Јournalists of Macedonia, the Јournalists and Media Workers Trade Union, by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, and by Gruevski’s ruling VMRO-DPMNE party. “This is just the latest in a series of incidents of violence and threats targeting journalists,” Mijatovic said. “This growing trend of violence against members of the media must be reversed and I call on the authorities to immediately and thoroughly investigate the brutal attack on Ivanovski,” she added. The Union said the assault on Ivanovski was a result of high tensions in Macedonia amid a political stand-off between Gruevski’s government and the opposition – both of which have staged mass demonstrations this month. “The failure to find the attackers in some previous cases gives encouragement for incidents of this kind to be repeated,” the Union said in a statement. The Association of Journalists in Macedonia appealed to the international community to get involved to defend media workers in the country. “We request the United Nations, the European Union, the US government, the Council of Europe and OSCE to immediately intervene with the Macedonian government to ensure the security of Macedonian journalists and to stop the practice of impunity of violence against journalists, which can lead to tragic consequences,” the Association said in a statement. The ruling party condemned the attack on Ivanovski but said it should not be prejudged to be politically motivated. “The case should not be abused on political grounds, before [law enforcement] institutions have their say. That doesn’t help the investigation,” the VMRO-DPMNE said. The attack was the third in a series of violent incidents in the past three weeks. On May 13, a jeep owned by journalist Branko Trickovski, another government critic, was burned out. The police report said the flames had spread from another vehicle that was parked closed to Trickovski’s and had been set on fire. On May 4, another vehicle was set on fire in front of a private parking lot owned by journalist Saso Ordanoski. The vehicle belonged to someone who rents the house, owned by Ordanoski. At the time, the house was empty but the car exploded and woke the neighbours up before the fire spread, a source who wanted to remain anonymous told BIRN. “If they didn’t hear the noise, the house could have also burned,” the source said. So far police haven’t detained anyone over either incident. Campaign group Reporters Without Borders’ most recent World Press Freedom Index, surveying the state of media freedom in 2014, ranked Macedonia at the bottom of the Balkan pile in 117th position out of 180 listed countries. “The situation of Macedonia’s media continued to be bad in 2014, a year marked by the misuse of defamation legislation and politically-motivated allocation of state advertising,” the report said.

Bulgaria, Croatia back territorial integrity of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (The Sofia Globe, 25 May 2015)

Bulgaria and Croatia will defend the territorial integrity of all the countries in the region, including Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia’s foreign minister Vesna Pusić said in Sofia after talks with her Bulgarian counterpart Daniel Mitov. Mitov said that the Balkan countries have common future. “We would oppose categorically any attempts at destabilisation,” Mitov said. Pusić said that one of the big advantages of the EU is the possibility for countries from the same region, though not immediate neighbours, to have a de facto political responsibility for its stability. She underlined that Bulgaria and Romania had a lot of common interests – from energy and transport infrastructure, relations with the eastern and southern neighbours, to economic strengthening, enlargement and stability of South Eastern Europe. Co-operation has already begun on those points, Pusić said, and would be solidified through the two countries’ agreements on joint interests in the region. She said co-operation also included other EU member states from the wider region in matters of economy, energy, transport, security and stability. “We believe it is important to keep Southeast Europe on the agenda as a region of future EU member states. Our countries have guaranteed European prospects and in that Croatia and Bulgaria see a joint interest,” Pusić said, underscoring the importance of territorial integrity of all the countries in the region. She said it was a country-specific tailor-made approach, mentioning Macedonia as the most sensitive point of the region which required engagement by other EU member states as well. Pusić said that what Macedonia needed was stability and protection of human, civil and ethnic rights, which can be achieved only through co-operation. She said that Croatia had established the Centre of Excellence, which gathers people who have participated in Croatia’s EU entry talks and co-operate with state officials from all countries in the region, including Macedonia. “I shared our concerns and the Bulgarian position that a clear and firm commitment of the entire EU is needed in the process of the country’s exit from the political crisis and in the entire transition period until the establishment of a lasting political stability guaranteeing both the civil and inter-ethnic peace in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as the country’s territorial integrity,” Mitov said, as quoted by BTA. Mitov said that it is even more important to use the crisis as an opportunity to launch actual reforms, without which the negotiations on entry into the EU cannot start. The two ministers also discussed other common topics and interests, such as entering the Schengen area, entering the euro area and the development of a strategy for entering a single digital market. The talks also focused on a large European investment project launched by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Croatia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

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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.