LOCAL PRESS

UN invites Member States to propose candidates for Ban Ki-moon’s successor (Novosti)

The government has not yet definitely decided whether Serbia will have a candidate for Ban Ki-moon’s successor, the UN Secretary-General, Novosti was told at government headquarters on the occasion of the information that an invitation was sent out from the UN headquarters to all Member States to register their candidates. The UN has announced that the names of two candidates had already arrived – Srdjan Kerim of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the former UN General Assembly president, and Vesna Pusic, Croatian Foreign Minister. If this would remain, Pusic would be a favorite since the UN “encourages” the candidacies of women, since only men had performed this function in the course of seven decades. “The elections for the Secretary-General will be held next December, so Belgrade still has time to decide whether it will join the race where it is expected that a candidate from Eastern Europe will be elected. So far, none of the ladies from Serbia had been recommended for this post, while Vuk Jeremic, former diplomat and UN General Assembly president, was considered to be interested, but never confirmed this. So far, the possible candidates from our region are Danilo Turk (Slovenia), Irina Bokova (Bulgaria) and Igor Luksic (Montenegro).

Kosovo with an asterisk or question mark (Politika)

With the opening of Chapter 35, it has again come to the fore that Serbia’s path to EU membership goes through the legally-binding Belgrade-Pristina agreement. The opposition that opposes EU integration sees this agreement as recognition of Pristina’s independence, while Tomislav Nikolic has doubts what the EU will request from Serbia in the negotiations, since most of the EU member states had recognized Kosovo. Stressing that it is completely clear to both EU officials and EU member states’ officials that Serbia will not give up part of its territory at any cost, the Chairman of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun says that the legally-binding agreement has not been concretely defined. In regard to the opening of Chapter 35, he recalls that Kosovo is marked with an asterisk in the EU document, meaning that it is neutral in status. “In my opinion, reaching a legally-binding agreement with Kosovo with an asterisk is not disputable. The disputable thing would be if someone would tell you to sign a legally-binding agreement with the state of Kosovo,” stresses Drecun. In regard to President Nikolic’s statement that he would like to see what is in the agreement, he says: “That is an open issue, since there is not a unified position in the EU, five countries do not recognize Kosovo and they will certainly not accept this. There are at least two big countries that would like the normalization process to end with the signing of a legally-binding agreement between two states, Serbia and Kosovo, but there is also room for further talks and agreements.” Drecun tells Politika that he had heard from one British official how the unclear status is slowing down Kosovo on the EU path and that this needs to be resolved in the next three years, meaning that Britain will probably pressure through Chapter 35 that we accept the agreement with the state of Kosovo. Yet, on the other side, he says, when he asked several U.S. officials whether they request us to recognize Kosovo as a state at the end of the process, he received the answer – only normalization of relations. “This shows that there is room for Serbia to maneuver in changing this firm stand of some EU states until the end of the process. Thus, all this is open,” says Drecun. However, Politika’s source from diplomatic circles in Belgrade recalls that Belgrade had accepted the EU negotiating framework when it officially commenced the negotiations and this should not be any surprise for Belgrade. “Before Serbia joins the EU, Belgrade and Pristina will probably have the obligation to sign one more agreement that will enable Kosovo to join numerous international organizations. Serbia doesn’t have the obligation now to allow something like this, especially if this is contrary to political and national interests, as Serbia had done this on the UNESCO issue,” says Politika’s source, according to whom nobody yet knows concretely what this document actually implies. In this diplomat’s opinion, its content will depend greatly on Belgrade’s diplomatic capability and skill in the negotiations with the EU. “In any case, I don’t think that someone will request Serbia to recognize independence of Kosovo, since it is unlikely that someone in Serbia would accept that. It would be senseless to conduct accession negotiations ten years and to close Chapter 35 in order to be conditioned at the end of the road with something that will throw all that into water,” says this diplomat, adding that nobody knows what will be the political situation in the EU when Serbia joins this organization.

Possible implementation of the “model of two Germanys” (Danas)

The EU negotiating position on Chapter 35 that refers to the resolution of the Kosovo issue has not brought essentially any news, diplomatic sources close to Brussels tell Danas. According to them, “it is quite certain that more specific and detailed conditions” will be communicated to Serbia in the next phases of its EU path. “The model of two Germanys will be applied in many ways in the case of Serbia and Kosovo. This means that official Belgrade will not be requested in the following years to formally recognize independence of Kosovo, but that the two sides will have to fulfill numerous obligations and that in the end Pristina will receive membership in many international organizations, including the United Nations,” Danas’ sources state. The EU document – which became public after the first negotiating chapters were opened with Serbia on Monday – doesn’t imply changes in the format of negotiations, i.e. Belgrade and Pristina will continue to negotiate under the EU auspices.

Keefe: Kosovo chapter without hidden traps (Novosti)

“There is nothing hidden in the EU negotiating platform for Chapter 35 that refers to Kosovo. The negotiating process with Brussels has been well established, and Serbia has just made one of the most important steps – the opening of the first chapters,” British Ambassador to Serbia Denis Keefe responds to Novosti as to whether there are hidden conditions in Chapter 35 that indirectly imply recognition of independence of Kosovo. The EU, including Great Britain, the European Commission and the Serbian government are working for the same goal – successful completion of Serbia’s membership negotiations: “We all know there is a lot of work, but we also appreciate the progress achieved so far. Now is the moment to say: congratulations, we have achieved something together. This encourages us that it is possible to achieve more.”

Still, Brussels directly links the EU integration process with progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. Can Serbia progress if the other side is obstructing this process?

“That dialogue is very important and this is why so much attention is devoted to it in the EU. What we have seen over the past several years is that it is possible to achieve progress in this process. There had been moments when progress was slow and we need to work on overcoming such things. I am an optimist, because I am a realist. I know that the process requires hard work, but I saw progress and I expect it to continue.”

Will the EU exert stronger pressure on the authorities in Pristina to implement the agreements, to overcome the political crisis and to continue the dialogue with Belgrade at the prime minister level?

“Everybody has their responsibility in this process. The dialogue is taking place under the EU mediation and everybody needs to play the role they had assumed.”

REGIONAL PRESS

Selection of FB&H executive branch under question (Nezavisne)

It is questionable whether the Rules of Procedure of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H) House of Peoples are constitutional, as well as the selection of the FB&H executive branch in this House. Under question are several laws, including the Labor Act, given the clear view of the Constitutional Court of the FB&H is that the voting quorum is not measured by the present or verified delegates. This was pointed out by some of the constitutional experts and delegates, after the FB&H Constitutional Court rejected the request of delegates from the Club of Serbs for evaluating the breach of vital national interest, because the application was filed by ten delegates, rather than a two-thirds majority in the club of the Serbs, as the Constitution requires. The request was filed due to amendments to the Law on Civil Service, but it opened up other issues that, as they said in the House of Peoples, can be answered only by the Constitutional Court. Namely, the Club of the Serbs has 13, and not 17 delegates as it was prescribed. The SDP pointed out that, with regard to the interpretation of the Constitutional Court, a majority of delegates needed for the adoption of the legislation in the House of Peoples is 30, and not 28 delegates, as it was considered this year. Because of this, the SDP announced that their delegates are going to initiate the procedures to the FB&H Constitutional Court in order to unambiguously determine the constitutionality of the government and of all adopted acts which were adopted by votes of 28 delegates. The House of Peoples stated that even the FB&H Government, the President and two Vice-Presidents were elected in this way, by the votes of 28 delegates.

Brammertz satisfied with decision to repeat trial of Stanisic and Simatovic (Nezavisne)

Chief Hague Prosecutor Serge Brammertz says he is satisfied with the decision to repeat the trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic. “In the appeal we made two key legal arguments against the acquittal in the first instance. The first argument was that the Trial Chamber had not tried on a number of evidence that we had presented and that showed there was a joint criminal plan to commit crimes in Croatia and B&H, and that Stanisic and Simatovic contributed to the implementation of this joint criminal plan,” Brammertz said. According to him, the second argument of the prosecution was that the Trial Chamber wrongly applied the concept of “concrete orientation” when making a decision on whether the accused aided and abetted the commission of the crime. “The Appeals Chamber accepted our arguments and ordered a retrial in its entirety under the applicable rules,” said Brammertz. A spokesman for the Hague Tribunal, Nenad Golcevski, said to the reporters that the retrial of the two former chiefs of Serbia’s state security service will not affect the exit strategy of the court, adding that the new trial will start in due course. Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with crimes committed against non-Serbs in Croatia and B&H from 1991 to 1995. In the spring of 2013, the ICTY acquitted them on all five counts.

Covic and King Al Saud: Improve cooperation between B&H and Saudi Arabia (Novo vrijeme)

The Chairman of the B&H Presidency Dragan Covic started the official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the royal palace in Riyadh. King Al Saud welcomed Covic at the square in front of the royal palace, where an official welcoming ceremony with military honors was held. The ceremony started with the playing of the anthems of B&H and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After the welcoming ceremony, a meeting of high delegations of B&H and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was held at the royal palace. Chairman Covic and King Al Saud assessed that relations between B&H and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are exceptionally good and friendly, but that there is space for improvement of cooperation in many fields. Covic thanked Al Saud for the support that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has provided for B&H and highlighted that it will still be worked on maintaining good relations, as well as on their improvement. On this occasion, Covic invited King Al Saud to an official visit to B&H, which the King accepted, the Presidency of B&H stated. After the meeting held in honor of Covic, King Al Saud organized an official lunch at the royal palace, which was attended by numerous invitees from the entire Kingdom.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbs bust gun-running ring linked to arms used in Paris attack (AFP, 17 December 2015)

BELGRADE – Serbian police have busted a gang smuggling arms to France, arresting two Serbian nationals and seizing guns and explosives, the interior minister said Wednesday.

The announcement came just a few days after the head of a state-controlled Serbian weapons factory told AFP that some of the arms believed to be used in last month’s deadly Paris attacks were manufactured by the firm. “We arrested late Tuesday two of our citizens, members of a large arms trafficking ring towards France,” Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told state-run RTS television. He did not elaborate on the links between the traffickers and France.

Stefanovic said police late Tuesday seized explosives, guns and ammunition from a vehicle in northern Serbia, and arrested the two occupants. A police statement said the seized weapons consisted of “three kilogrammes (6.6 pounds) of plastic explosive, two detonators, nine hand grenades, three automatic rifles, two machine guns and 160 bullets of 7.62 mm calibre.”

The minister said police in the northern town of Novi Sad had been monitoring the traffickers for “several months.” He did not reveal the suspects’ identities or other details of the investigation.

Milojko Brzakovic, head of the Zastava arms factory, told AFP last week that following the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, Serbia’s interior ministry was asked by French police and Interpol to check serial numbers of seven weapons, including assault rifles, believed to have been manufactured in Zastava. “We were given numbers of weapons and confirmed that all had been manufactured in Zastava,” he said. German newspaper Bild reported last month that four assault rifles used in the Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead, had been allegedly purchased from a trafficker in Germany. Quoting documents from the Stuttgart prosecutor’s office, the newspaper said two AK47s and two Zastava M70s were sold on Nov. 7 by the arms dealer to a customer in Paris.

EU Snubs Kosovo Over Visa Liberalisation (BIRN, by Besa Maliqi, 17 December 2015)

Leaders voiced shock and dismay after the EU said the next countries to be offered visa liberalisation would be Ukraine and Georgia – once again leaving Kosovo out in the cold.

Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci voiced shock on Wednesday after the EU declined to include Kosovo in its visa liberalization scheme, also angering and disappointing Kosovo politicians and EU integration experts. The EU on Tuesday said only Ukraine and Georgia will be added to the EU’s visa-free system by mid-2016. “The council stresses the importance of the fulfilment of all conditions set for visa liberalization and encourages Kosovo to pursue its efforts in order to make progress in its visa liberalization process,” the European Council said. At Wednesday’s meeting of the government, Mustafa said that Kosovo had already fulfilled all the criteria that the EU requested for the visa liberalization process. “We have met all the requirements, and I evaluate that there is no reason for the EU not to a give [positive] recommendation regarding visas. We fulfilled all the technical issues, the decision is political, this is the political will of the EU,” Mustafa said. Deputy Prime Minister Thaci said that the EU should stop using encouraging words and provide real support instead. “The EU should stop using this simplistic vocabulary, by saying Kosovo should be optimistic and that there is light at the end of tunnel,” Thaci said. Kosovo signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA, with the EU in October, and the government had set visa-free travel to the EU and membership of UNESCO as the next milestones. However, Kosovo failed in its bid to join UNESCO by three votes. Many citizens at least expected the EU to lift the visa requirement. Emrush Ujkani, a Pristina-based analyst, told BIRN that Kosovo had been unwise to expect a political gift from Brussels. “We have not worked hard enough to address EU requests and indeed we have not deserved more than we have [received]”, Ujkani said. The latest EU Commission progress report praised Kosovo for making progress in agreements with Serbia but also lamented the failure to do more in fighting corruption. Afrim Hoti, an expert on European affairs, said Kosovo’s institutions bore some responsibility for the failure to win a visa-free regime with the EU, but added that the blame did not lie with the government alone. “Part of the responsibility falls on EU institutions, which… have neglected… to concentrate on assisting Kosovo to obtain visa liberalization,” Hoti said. Kosovo is now the only country in the Balkans whose citizens needs visas to enter the EU. Citizens of Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have been able to travel without visas into the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone since 2010.

Macedonian PM: We will respond to The Guardian for their false statement (UNIAN news, 17 December 2015)

The Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski says he has not given a statement saying Macedonia will change its name, according to Macedonian news agency Meta. “I have never said such a thing. And we will respond to The Guardian. It is obvious from the text itself that it came from a comment from a journalist, not my statement,” Gruevski said in a written statement regarding the interview given to the British newspaper, Meta reports. “It is crystal clear. We are used to these sorts of provocations. Obviously the topic of our countries name, and the name dispute itself, has become popular at a point in time as one would expect and such tendentious and erroneous interpretations of many who do not want good process for the country and are either yearning for false exclusivity or performing someone else’s agenda, we expect this sort of behavior,” he said. As UNIAN reported earlier, according to The Guardian, the Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said he would be open to changing his country’s name, raising hopes of an end to one of the world’s most unusual diplomatic spats – a 24-year linguistic dispute with Greece.

Macedonia says “huge mountains” remain in name dispute with Greece (Reuters, 17 December 2015)

ATHENS – Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said on Thursday there were “huge mountains” between Skopje and Athens in resolving the almost 25-year-old name dispute between the two neighbours. Athens has disputed the Balkan state’s name since Skopje declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and took the name of Macedonia, saying it implied territorial claims to a Greek province called Macedonia. “We have to climb a mountain to settle this issue,” Poposki said during a visit to Athens. “There are substantive differences in the positions of the two countries.” Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said the two sides were seeking “an honourable compromise that will fight irredentism and extreme nationalism on both sides.”

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris and Angeliki Koutantou)

Former close ally of Montenegrin PM detained –lawyer (Reuters, by Petar Komnenic, 17 December 2015)

PODGORICA – The first and last president of the short-lived state union of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic, was detained by police in Montenegro on Thursday, his lawyer said. The lawyer, Zdravko Begovic, said he did not know what his client was accused of. “It is correct that my client Svetozar Marovic was detained,” Begovic told Reuters. “He was taken to the special prosecutor’s office where the hearing will start soon. I am on my way there.” Marovic was once one of the closest allies of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, but fell out of favour in recent years as several close relatives were charged with corruption in the family stronghold of Budva on the Montenegrin coast. He remains a senior member of Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists. Djukanovic, who has dominated Montenegrin politics for 25 years, has long been under pressure to crack down on organised crime and corruption that became endemic with the collapse of federal Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The West says some progress has been made, culminating this month in an invitation for the country of 650,000 people to join NATO. Marovic represents potentially the most high profile scalp so far. Marovic was the only president of Serbia and Montenegro, a loose state union created from rump Yugoslavia in 2003 but which was dissolved in 2006 when Montenegro voted narrowly in a referendum in favour of independence.

(Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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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.