LOCAL PRESS

Vucic cancels trip to Brussels and meetings in U.S. (Politika)

Serbian Prime Minister-designate Aleksandar Vucic has cancelled a visit to Brussels on 21 June, as well as all bilateral meetings with senior U.S. officials scheduled to follow his 23 June trip to the country on the first direct Air Serbia flight from Belgrade to New York, Politika reports.
Politika quotes well-informed sources close to the Prime Minister-Designate, but added that attempts to obtain an official confirmation from Vucic or his aides were unsuccessful. The decision to cancel the meetings with senior Western officials was made over the past weekend following Vucic’s phone conversations with top EU officials, the report said. During the courteous but quite restrained conversations, the Western officials were informed that Vucic will not be going to Brussels until the new Serbian government is formed, whoever forms it, Politika reported.

Scott, Davenport: Support to reforms and Vucic’s EU plan (RTS/Tanjug)

At a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Monday, U.S. Ambassador Kyle Scott and the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport stressed their support for economic and political reforms undertaken by the Serbian government and Vucic’s goal of preparing Serbia for EU accession in 2020. The diplomatic representatives of Serbia’s two largest bilateral donors discussed with Vucic their commitment to implementing major cooperation programs whose priorities have been coordinated with the Serbian government.
The two Ambassadors noted the significance of strengthening the judicial system and the rule of law for attracting new foreign investments to Serbia, the Serbian government said in a statement.
Davenport and Scott also highlighted the significance of progress in efforts to support and strengthen regional security, including further steps in the dialogue with Pristina. Vucic thanked Davenport and Scott for their support for Serbia on its European path. Vucic extended condolences to Scott over the horrific terror attack in Orlando, handing him a letter of condolences for U.S. President Barack Obama.

Djordjevic, Li Manchang agree to step up Serbian-Chinese military cooperation (Beta)

Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic met with Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Manchang to discuss opportunities for developing cooperation between the two states in the defense sectors, and agreed to expand it for mutual benefit, the Ministry stated. The Minister and the Ambassador expect an upcoming visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to contribute to bilateral ties in general, as well as cooperation in the defense sector. All aspects of support to the organization of the visit, to be provided by the Defense Ministry and the Serbian Army, were discussed at the meeting. China is one of Serbia’s main strategic partners and closest friend, the Serbian Minister and the Chinese diplomat agreed, adding that different projects of mutual interest had been launched, especially in the two states’ defense industries. “Djordjevic and Li Manchang agreed that high and top level visits have a positive impact on creating a very good environment for the dynamic development of general and political bilateral relations, as well as cooperation in the defense sector, with an emphasis on the development of economic and technical cooperation in the military sector,” the Defense Ministry said in a press release.

Chepurin: False democrats want weak Serbian government (Novosti)

“Russia consistently supports the territorial integrity of Serbia, strict honoring of UNSCR 1244. In my opinion, one should not allow the devaluation of the UN Mission in Kosovo and Metohija. It is important for Pristina to inevitably fulfill the reached agreements on Community of Serb Municipalities. Kosovo’s attempts, with the help of foreign sponsors, to insist on membership in international organizations are absolutely illegitimate. Let us not forget that, according to UNSCR 1244, the right to represent Kosovo in international structures belongs exclusively to UNMIK, whose status has been determined as the interim administration of the province,”

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Chepurin emphasized in the author text titled “False Democrats Want Weak Government”.

Serbia cannot join EU without Kosovo becoming UN member (Danas)

Germany will not ratify the agreement on Serbia’s EU membership as long as Kosovo doesn’t become an UN member, Danas was told at the German Bundestag. One of the MPs of the ruling CDU-CSU coalition says that the “Serbian leadership was told two years ago that Kosovo’s UN membership would be one of the conditions for Serbia to be admitted in the EU”. According to Danas’ interlocutor who insisted on anonymity, during talks with the Serbian Minister in Charge of EU integration Jadranka Joksimovic, this German stand was presented to the Serbian side when the Brussels agreement between Serbia and Kosovo was discussed. “We said then that we will not ratify Serbia’s EU membership if Serbia doesn’t accept Kosovo’s UN membership. Still, this remains an open issue in this party, since there are different opinions on this issue,” said this Bundestag MP. The MP adds that “the time has come to launch the process of recognizing Kosovo’s UN membership”, “to persuade the people in the ruling Serbian Progressive Party to accept this request” and to “prepare the public in Serbia” for this request. “We will need to talk more with Prime Minister Vucic and other parties in Serbia about what normalization of relations with Kosovo means. When we asked the Serbian officials, they didn’t have an answer. For us, normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo implies that Kosovo becomes an UN member,” said this MP.

REGIONAL PRESS

Referendum and local elections should be held on the same day (Klix)

President of Republika Srpska (RS) and leader of SNSD Milorad Dodik stated that SNSD remains adamant to the attitude that referendum on the Day of RS should be held on the same day as the local elections, on October 2. “One of the most important reasons for that is the factor of time, given that we celebrate the Day of RS two months after the elections so it is necessary to implement procedures so that it could all be formalized,” said Dodik. He highlighted that he has support for the implementation of this referendum from a large number of important political factors.

Ivanic: No one has the right to criticize Serbs for the responses that will follow (Srna)

Now that the Serbs have been tricked about the population census, no one has the right to criticize them for responses that will follow, said Mladen Ivanic, a member of the B&H Presidency from the RS, adding that he will “tighten things up” for many future Presidency decisions due to such Sarajevo’s behavior. Legal professional Vitomir Popovic considers illegal the decision about the common census data processing program, which was made by B&H Agency for Statistics Director Velimir Jukic, and points out that the Bosniaks are thus continually implementing the 1990s policy, whose goal was to build a state on the one man, one vote principle. The Bosniak politicians have excessively politicized the population census issue with an approval of the international community and thus made it even more complicated, said Socialist Party leader Petar Djokic.

Dodik comments on the language in RS (Srna)

The RS President Dodik stated that the Constitution of RS lists the “language of Bosniak people” and that only that language can be taught in schools in the RS. “There is a Constitution and there is no dilemma. Whoever wants to learn another language can do so on the other side. Here, the language will be taught as the Constitution of RS dictates,” Dodik stated. In a statement for journalists, Dodik said that the request by Council of parents of Bosniak children from Srebrenica to list Bosnian language in the report cards is not a novelty, but that students in the schools in RS will learn the language prescribed by the Constitution of RS. Dodik reiterated that SNSD remains adamant to the attitude that referendum on January 9 as the Day of RS should be held on the same day as the local elections, on October 2. In this way, the citizens would also declare on the question “Are you in favor of celebrating the January 9 as the Day of RS”? “One of the most important reasons for this is the factor of time, given that two months after the elections we are celebrating the Day of RS, so it is necessary to implement procedures in order to formalize it,” Dodik said. Last year, the B&H Constitutional Court disputed the 9 January as the Day of RS and recently this Court also reached a decision which gives every nation the right to name their language as they want. The Constitution of RS says that in that B&H entity the official languages in use are the language of Bosniak people, the language of Serb people and the language of Croat people.

Why is the proposal by the European Commission inacceptable for the RS? (Faktor)

The RS government finds that accepting the proposed amendments to the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU would result in additional devastation of agricultural sector in RS, stated the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. The Ministry claims that this would especially jeopardize primary production. “In this sense, responsibility for consequences of decisions which refer to agricultural producers from the RS must be taken by staff from that B&H entity in the Council of Ministers of B&H,” stated the Ministry. The Ministry was notified yesterday that the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of B&H received a letter from the head of negotiating team of the European Commission Mikele Matuele, regarding the adaptation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement. In the letter, requests of both parties are considered and the readiness of European Commission to accept certain requests from B&H was shown, with obligation for B&H to accept the majority of trade concessions for about 200 agricultural products which are being imported in B&H. “The benefits that would probably be given to the EU side are a lot more valuable than benefits for B&H. Thus, we believe that accepting this proposal by the European Commission is not justified. With the proposed positions, without the arranged system of accepting EU funds for agricultural development, in conditions when the measures of protection are not used, we are not convinced in the positive sides of possible changes in SAA at the moment” stated the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of RS.

HDZ official: Zdravko Maric the HDZ’s candidate for the Prime Minister (Nova TV)

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) vice-president Oleg Butkovic confirmed in an interview with Nova TV on Friday evening that Finance Minister Zdravko Maric was the HDZ’s candidate for Prime Minister-designate, noting that the HDZ would not have nominated Maric if it was not confident that it had the support of 76 members of Parliament for a government reshuffle. “The HDZ Presidency has made a decision that Maric is their choice for PM-designate,” Butkovic said when asked why Maric had been chosen since he was not a member of the HDZ and did not have electoral legitimacy. Maric was appointed Finance Minister at the proposal of the HDZ and he served previously in the HDZ-led governments, including as a state secretary at the Finance Ministry, Butkovic said, describing Maric as a professional who was open to cooperation. Asked how far the party had progressed in negotiations on a reshuffle of the parliamentary majority considering its claims that it had the necessary support of 76 MPs, Butkovic said that the HDZ would not have nominated Maric if it was not confident that it had the necessary support. A vote on confidence in PM Tihomir Oreskovic will be taken on Wednesday or Thursday and that will be the first step. After that, the PM-designate will do his job, together with the President of the Republic, and a new government will be formed, said Butkovic. Commenting on the statement by former senior HDZ official Vladimir Seks that the HDZ was “bluffing” about the new parliamentary majority, Butkovic said that Seks had not been a member of the party leadership for a long time and did not have enough information on what was going on in the party. Commenting on Oreskovic’s refusal to step down, Butkovic said that he no longer enjoyed the support of the party that had nominated him to that position. “That has turned out to be an unsuccessful experiment,” Butkovic said, declining to state his opinion of Oreskovic. “We have made decisions and he will be given a vote of no confidence,” he said. Oreskovic made a try and some positive progress did happen but he did not do what he was supposed to do, which is to successfully run the government and ensure a successful start of reforms, Butkovic said. He added that Maric would prepare his own program and become actively involved in negotiations with potential partners.

NATO: Montenegro must increase its defense budget (Pobjeda)

One of the most important matters in NATO is budget increases for defense, regarding complicated safety situation. This will also be a task for Montenegro, future member of the Alliance. Only 5 of 28 NATO countries invest more than 2% of BDP in defense. On the Welsh Summit of 2014 it was agreed that countries that invest less than 2% must increase their investment and reach 2% in the next ten years. Pobjeda spoke with President of CDT Milica Kovacevic and military analyst Aleksandar Radic, who said that it does not seem realistic that all the members will reach recommended quota in ten years. Kovacevic said that only one country reached that number after Welsh Summit, and it was Poland, thus joining USA, Great Britain, Estonia and Greece. “A few of the countries increase and a few decreased their defense budget during 2015. Total defense expenses in NATO in 2015 are lower than in 2014,” Kovacevic said. Members have received a note from the highest address in the Alliance. Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg invited allies on Friday to respect their obligations and increase defense budgets. Stoltenberg thinks that NATO allies must first stop the decrease, and then go into increasing the budget step by step. “We must invest in the defense, because it is a condition for safety and the only possibility to ensure peace,” he said. Decreasing trend started in the 1990s, and during last decade, it was a matter of debate among members. “NATO expanded since the beginning of the 90s, and defense budget decreased. Capacities for defending Europe thus decreased as well,” she said. Kovacevic said that this subject is a matter of debates in Europe, with different approaches. “Enthusiasm for an increase was demonstrated by a few countries, such as Poland, Lithuania and Letonia. However, this enthusiasm is not shared by all, especially by countries hit with economic crisis,” Kovacevic said. Military analyst Radic agrees that there is a long-term trend of saving money at the expense of military. “With the end of Cold War, Americans were left interventions. Europe participated as much as it could and wanted in these activities. National budgets increased, and media created a picture of armies that are bigger than they used to be. But in fact, if we take a look at the period of 20 or 30 years before, they are much less,” he said. Radic said that Germany recognized the issue and decided to increase the budget. He said that Poland is giving the most in Europe, while Mediterranean countries followed the decrease trend. NATO members have set a deadline of 10 years to increase the budget to 2%. Kovacevic believes that a failure to reach this number would be a hit for NATO credibility and would show that the members are not dedicated to fulfilling their obligations. “This deadline is not so serious for countries that took over the obligation in 2014, but it will present a pressure for those that are in positions of leadership in 2024,” Kovacevic thinks. She said that, for the future of NATO, it would be significant if most members could reach this quota, because it would be a positive influence on general increase in defense budget of NATO.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbian Officials Express High Hopes for Xi’s Visit (CRI Online, 12 June 2016)

Ahead of a planned visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, officials in Serbia say they’re confident the trip is going to have a significant impact on the country’s ties with China.

Looking forward to Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit, President of the Serbian Parliament, Maja Gojkovic, suggests China-Serbia ties are already on a solid footing. “I hope the visit will be eventful and successful. The relations between Serbia and China have been developing proactively. China is a very sincere friend to us, and it has never cast any vote or made any decisions against Serbia’s interests. China has never admitted the independence unilaterally declared by Kosovo. We very much appreciate China’s unshakable support on Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Beyond political ties, Gojkovic says economic links have also been growing, and she believes new Chinese industrial projects in Serbia could be on the horizon. “For example, Chinese companies have built bridges in Belgrade, railway lines between Belgrade and Budapest, and remodeled a steel factory in Serbia. More moves have been made to further strengthen our economic ties, for example, the Serbian government representatives led by our Prime Minister will hold talks with their Chinese counterparts about the possibility of establishing a Chinese industrial zone in Serbia, as one of the cooperation prospects.” Gojkovic says investment from China and a strategic partnership with China will only serve to stimulate the development of Serbia’s economy. She says as Serbia continues to seek a membership in the European Union, plans are also in-place to expand cooperation with other countries outside the EU, including China. Zorana Mihajlovic is Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister, as well as the Minister of Transportation, Construction and Infrastructure. She says Chinese companies have already been able to improve Serbia’s infrastructure since the two countries formed a strategic partnership in 2009. “Now, we have the high speed railway project from Belgrade to Budapest, and the No. 11 expressway linking Montenegro and Serbia. The total investment from China to Serbia has reached the scale of 2.5 billion to 2.8 billion dollars. We hope the commercial contracts will be signed in a few months after the visit of the Chinese President.” Mihajlovic says much of the work being done between China and Serbia is through a cooperation mechanism, which was established between China and Central and Eastern European countries and known as the 16+1 mechanism. “We are happy that China chose Serbia as a partner and let us be its biggest partner in the Balkan region. Most of the funds invested by China in the Balkans were eventually flowed to Serbia. Through direct investment to Serbia, it shows that Serbia is the center of the China-CEE 16+1 mechanism, and it is also an important country for infrastructure investment.” The 16 + 1 mechanism was established in 2012 among China and 16 countries which make up central and eastern Europe. Bilateral trade volumes between those countries and China easily surpassed 50 billion US dollars last year. Both the Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic visited China last year. The Chinese government is on-record saying it views Serbia as an important partner in its “Belt and Road” initiative, particularly as a distribution hub to move products back and forth from China and the rest of Europe.

Serbs protest demolitions for UAE-investment project (AP, 11 June 2016)

BELGRADE, Serbia — Thousands of people took part Saturday in the latest in a series of protests in Belgrade triggered by shady demolitions in a popular city area marked for a United Arab Emirates-financed real estate project. More than 5,000 people demanded that the Belgrade mayor Sinisa Mali resign and that those behind the nighttime destruction in April of a block of houses by a group of masked men be punished. The citizens’ protests sparked by the demolitions have become a challenge to Prime Minister-designate Aleksandar Vucic, who faces accusations of hardline rule despite promising to take Serbia toward integration with the European Union. Some protesters at Saturday’s rally wore balaclavas to mock the demolitions, while many blew horns and whistles. The protest banners read “Masks have fallen, when will the government?” or “Belgrade Is Our City.” “Resignations are only the first step,” said Luka Knezevic Strika, from the “Don’t Drown Belgrade” group behind the protest. “We will force them to acknowledge responsibility of all who participated (in the incident.)” Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party dismissed the gathering as a “circus” organized by the opposition parties. Under pressure, Vucic — who is a former nationalist-turned pro-EU reformer — recently has admitted that Belgrade city authorities were behind the demolitions but he didn’t name any city officials. The Belgrade mayor, Mali, is a close ally who played an important role in the agreement with UAE investors to build a Dubai-style business and residential complex in the run-down urban area by the Sava River. Some of Belgrade’s prominent architects and citizens’ groups have sharply criticized the Belgrade waterfront plan as unsuitable for the Serbian capital and allege corruption.

Serbia’s New Parliament: Debating Chamber or Reality Show? (BIRN, by Slobodan Georgijev, 10 June 2016)

The Serbian parliament can sometimes look more like ‘Big Brother’ than a serious legislature, with MPs competing to attract the most media coverage.

It started with an eruption at the end of last week when the temporary speaker of parliament, Dragoljub Micunovic, the oldest MP, closed the session before the legislature’s new presidency had been elected. Micunovic, a senior official from the Democrats, one of the opposition parties, stuck to parliamentary procedures and closed the session at 6pm.His argument was that there was no need to continue after that time and scheduled new session for Monday.“We are not in the kind of emergency situation [that would require us] to work in parliament during the night,” said Micunovic. The ruling majority represented by the Progressive Party said that was not a democratic act and that Micunovic misused parliamentary protocol and procedures. As well as being criticised by the Progressives, Micunovic was attacked by the media under their control, in the same way as they have been doing for the past four years since the party took power from the Democrats.“False democrats, the same ones that casually set fire to the Assembly [during the uprising against Slobodan Milosevic in 2000], even stealing the paintings and armchairs from the highest representative body of all citizens; to whom it is normal to fight citizens on the streets, who every day promote hate speech, insult women and journalists and offend ethnic minorities, and today, as soon as they could seize the opportunity, crudely abused their position and again mocked democracy in Serbia,” the Progressive Party said in a statement.The first days of the new Serbian parliament provided fuel for the tabloids and started with a new ‘campaign’ that made the legislature look like the ‘Big Brother’ house and MPs like reality show participants. Only one more step is needed before we get there: introduce text-message voting and allow the public to take part.Paradoxically, for everyone and every party in parliament, that ‘reality-TV atmosphere’ is good because it secures constant public attention.“You can curse me, but print my picture” has become the unwritten rule in Serbian political and parliamentary life, and the father of that concept, back in the nineties, were the current leading lights of the Progressives who were then in the Radical Party, led by Vojislav Seselj.Those who remember Serbian parliamentary life at that time know that the Radicals, led by Seselj, Tomislav Nikolic and Aleksandar Vucic, did whatever was necessary to attract media and public attention.Now that tactic has become normal practice and it’s used by almost all MPs, which is why ordinary people are starting to perceive the National Assembly not as the country’s highest legislative institution but as an entertaining bit of media content. It is not a question of what the laws will look like in the future, it is more a question of who’s going to verbally assault their political enemy next.It looks as if Vucic, who is set to become prime minister again, understood all that, because when he came to parliament to hold talks over future government policy with leaders of opposition parties, he excluded representatives of the Dosta je bilo movement, which has 16 MPs, because Sasa Radulovic, the leader of the movement, offended him.Vucic told the media that he acted like a school teacher because when you have an unruly pupil in class, you should throw him out.It was unprecedented event in a democratic country’s parliament – the presumptive PM had punished an MP because he didn’t like what the MP said to him.But the message was sent: the only leader and decent person in the Serbian political environment is Mr. Vucic, and all the others are liars who are unworthy of being there.On top of that, Vucic, who is not an MP, has been holding press conferences in parliament every day, using it as a forum for his political fight against his “enemies”. All these incidents will just serve to decrease people’s trust in the institution and undermine its dignity.So if he really is a pro-EU, democratic politician, Vucic should protect the legislature from his irrepressible need to create entertaining media content and conduct his activities in the government’s buildings – not in parliament.