270114

LOCAL PRESS

 

Vulin: Elections will not hinder negotiations (RTS)

Serbian Minister without Portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija Aleksandar Vulin thinks that early parliamentary elections will not hinder negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. Prior to his departure for Brussels, Vulin told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS): “This government has implemented seven agreements that the previous government had signed and each following government will implement the Brussels agreement signed by this government. From our side there will be no problem.” However, Vulin points to the fact that elections in June or September also await Pristina, which behaves as if the elections will occur tomorrow, so there is a lot of hindering, hesitating from their side and fear before their electoral body. “That is why they are viewing the Brussels agreement as something that turned against what they thought would be – there may be problems from that side, but as far as the Serbian Government is concerned – we are a serious state and it is natural that the next government will implement the agreements signed by this government,” stressed Vulin. Asked whether the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija will vote at the early parliamentary elections on 16 March, Vulin said: “Just as in the past, the Serbs will vote at these elections, one of the first items we discussed when all this commenced was the right of the Serbs to vote for the Serbian president and parliament.” He doesn’t expect early parliamentary elections to slow down in any way the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities. “The formation of the Union might wait for the elections to end in Kosovska Mitrovica, although this doesn’t need to be waited for either,” said Vulin, adding that the councilors of the Serbian list in Kosovska Mitrovica will inform him today or tomorrow about the mayoral candidate. Since the Union will be the topic of further dialogue with Pristina, Vulin says that the Management Team, which was formed after the Brussels decision at the proposal of the four northern Kosovo municipalities, is completing the draft statute. “We will set a time for commencing work on what the Management Team prepares. The statute is the main thing – it will determine the future life of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija,” said Vulin. Asked what the legally binding document on normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations could imply, Vulin says that nobody mentioned it at the beginning of the screening of Chapter 35. “Someone would first have to present us with this document. If this is recognition of Kosovo then let us not waste time – nobody will sign it,” said Vulin. The Movement of Socialists, led by Vulin, will go to the elections with the Serbian Progressive Party. Vulin confirmed that he had also advocated early parliamentary elections and that it was not a matter of only “changing ranks.” “We have started negotiations with the EU, we have resumption of the dialogue with Pristina, it is important to implement economic reforms and see what the labor unions and people think - let them say at the elections whether we have their trust.”

 

Office for Kosovo and Metohija condemns ban to Vulin (Tanjug)

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija has condemned the ban issued to Minister in charge of Kosovo and Metohija Aleksandar Vulin, who has been not allowed to visit Strpce, in southern Kosovo, and put a ski lift on Mt Brezovica into operation after two years. This has been the fifth time Vulin has been banned from visiting Strpce, stresses the Office, demanding of international community to ensure that all the reached agreements are obeyed.

 

Government appoints temporary president of interim body in Kosovska Mitrovica (Tanjug)

The Serbian Government adopted the decision according to which Aleksandar Spiric will temporarily perform the duty as the president of the interim body of the Kosovska Mitrovica municipal assembly. According to a release posted on the government’s website, Spiric will perform the office until the appointment of president of the interim body of the Kosovska Mitrovica municipal assembly. Krstimir Pantic held the office prior to winning the local elections in Kosovska Mitrovica but he refused to assume office as the mayor because of the symbols of Kosovo’s statehood on the statement of the oath he was supposed to sign. On the basis of the Serbian Government decision, member of the interim body of the Zvecan municipal assembly Ivan Todosijevic was dismissed from office and the government replaced him with Vucina Jankovic, Zvecan Mayor.

 

DS: Vucic to say why he wants elections (Blic)

The DS election headquarters held its first meeting, the DS announced. “In the show directed by the SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic, apart from a series of demagogic and dramatical messages, the Serbian citizens still haven’t heard one single reason why are they heading towards elections after less than two years. It is obvious to the DS that a government that topples itself is admitting that it hasn’t been doing a good job, whereby everything that the DS has been stating over the past two years has been confirmed,” states the DS. “If the SNS doesn’t admit that the government has been doing a bad job, it will be become obvious to citizens that power is precisely the only reason why the elections are slated. Following the decision to slate elections, it is clear that the SNS opines that it is legitimate for entire Serbia to depend on the will and decision of one man and the DS sees as its mission precisely in opposing this,” states the DS. Their message is that “the elections will be the centre of gathering of all those who wish for Serbia to be a modern, organized country where institutions will be strong, officials will be limited by law, where media will be free of pressure, and citizens will not pay the price of the government’s incompetence.”

 

Tadic creating bloc prior to elections without DS? (Novosti)

The honorary leader of the Democratic Party (DS) Boris Tadic is thinking about participating in the parliamentary elections without his party, Novosti writes. According to this daily, he has had already informal meetings with the representatives of the Liberal Democratc Party (LDP), United Regions of Serbia (URS), LSV and Dusan Petrovic’s Together for Serbia, in an attempt to form a joint opposition bloc. In the following days Tadic will have a series of consultations with ideologically close political leaders at his Centre for Science Policy Development. Novosti explains that creating this “colorful” alliance could be the biggest election surprise.

 

Kostunica: Serbia should be a politically neutral country (Beta)

The leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Vojislav Kostunica has stated at the session of the Main Board that Serbia will be deciding at the upcoming early parliamentary elections whether it will be free and politically neutral or whether it will be an EU puppet.  He warned that in case it decides to pursue European integration, Serbia cannot preserve the free trade agreement with Russia which is vital for the country’s economy. “We want to maintain best and closest possible cooperation with Russia, we want the South Stream pipeline to go through Serbia, we want as many Russian investments as we can get and we want Russia’s culture to remain present in the country. This is all possible only if the state and the people are free and status neutral,” he said. “Instead of EU membership, DSS supports a free, independent and politically neutral Serbia,” Kostunica noted. He said that political neutrality also implies best possible cooperation with western countries on grounds of mutual agreements. Kostunica noted that the northern province of Vojvodina is in complete legal chaos while Brussels agreements with Pristina are destroying every mode of Serbia’s statehood. He warned that there is no chance for Serbia to preserve Kosovo if the people decide to follow the path of European integration.  “The government loved the EU more and it feared it more than it loved and respected Serbia,” he said. Kostunica said that European integration and implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement are the main reason for Serbia’s economic collapse.

Jovanovic: First interlocutor will not be from the ruling party (Tanjug)

LDP leader Cedomir Jovanovic has stated that the time has come for the LDP to start implementing its policy that has in the meantime become the key element of state policy. Jovanovic assesses that he sees early parliamentary elections as an “expression of weakness and disorientation of the ruling coalition” for a job that has to be done in Serbia.” Pointing out that they will dicuss coalitions only after they receive support from citizens for the job they wish to get done, Jovanovic said that the first interlocutors of the LDP will certainly not be the parties of today’s ruling coalition.

 

Solidarity for Kosovo: Completion of documentary in Serb parts of Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug)

A crew of French reporters from Paris arrived on Monday in Kosovo with the goal of shooting a documentary film on life in Serb enclaves and monasteries, while the main story follows father Ilarion, a francophone and former actor who became a prior of the Draganac Monastery in Kosovo and Metohija. The Director of the organization “Solidarity for Kosovo” and the organizer of the documentary Arno Gujon says that thanks to the documentary, his compatriots in France will be acquainted with the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and also realize that, despite the difficult circumstances in which they live, they are not so different and that many things connect them.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Dacic attends with Gruevski St. Sava Academy (Tanjug)

The citizens of Serbia and FRYOM must work on neighborly relations, Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his counterpart Nikola Gruevski have said. “If Macedonians and Serbs are clever, they will live in love, friendship and mutual trust. If they are not - which will not be the first time - they will be working to their own detriment and to the joy of our enemies,” Dacic said while attending a ceremonial Saint Sava Day academy in Skopje. “We should not look to the past, but to the future, and we should leave the past to historians,” Dacic said. “Marking holidays such as this is very important in modern multi-ethnic societies. In this way, we value mutual respect, we learn about each other and live together. That represents the symbols of respect, trust and togetherness. The very presence of Dacic adds another quality to enhancing good neighborly relations in the spirit of European values,” Gruevski said. Before the event, Dacic and Gruevski held a bilateral meeting, reaching an agreement on intensifying the economic cooperation between FRYOM and enhancing the policy of good neighborly relations,” Tanjug reported.

Slavka Draskovic: Silent assimilation and low birth rate of Serbs in FYROM (Tanjug)

“The greatest challenges faced by the Serbs in the FYROM are silent assimilation, low birth rate, protection of the Serbian spiritual and cultural heritage,” the Director of the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and the Serbs in the region Slavka Draskovic said in Tetovo.

Draskovic pointed out at the St. Sava Academy that it is important to insist on the implementation of the Inter-State Agreement between Serbia and the FYROM on the protection of national communities, Serbs in the FYROM and the Macedonians in Serbia. “The policy of the Serbian Government towards the Serbs in the region is one of the pillars of the state policy for economic, political and identity reasons. The Serbs in the FYROM are an autochthonous nation who has lived here for centuries,” said Draskovic. “I ask you to stick together, to be engaged in the work of your representative body, the Assembly of the Diaspora and the Serbs in the region, as well as in the amendments to the Law on the Diaspora and the Serbs in the region,” said Draskovic. According to the census in 2002, 36 000 Serbs live in the FYROM, mostly in Skopje and the Kumanovo valley. Compared to the 1994 census, 8000 less Serbs have been noted. According to the estimates of Serb associations quoting data from the FRYOM Interior Ministry, in the period between 1994 and 2002 the Serbs were given 17000 citizenships and there are more than 61 000 Serbs, reads the statement.

 

Linta: Daniel Srb’s statement represents hate speech towards Serbia (Tanjug)

The Coalition of Refugee Associations opines that the statement by the Croatian right wing leader Daniel Srb represents hate speech towards Serbia and everything that is Serbian and that it is aimed at presenting Serbia in the EU as an aggressor in the war and the side that has committed crimes while presenting Croatia as a victim and the side that waged a liberation war.

The statement, signed by the Coalition’s President Miodrag Linta, reads that the main responsibility for the war in Croatia lies with the regime of Franjo Tudjman, whose goal was to create a Croatia without Serbs or with as less as possible Serbs. “Without resolving these issues it isn’t possible to establish relations of mutual respect between Serbia and Croatia nor can there be sincere reconciliation between the Serbia and Croatian people,” reads the Coalition’s statement. The leader of the right-wing Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) Daniel Srb requested the Croatian state leadership to treat Serbia, after it opens accession talks with the EU, by “preparing hell” with demands on which there must not be yielding.

 

They hate everything Serbian (Novosti)

Everything that even “smells” Serbian is being “hit” with the assistance of the authorities in northern Montenegro, where the Serbs are a majority and the Serbian language is dominant among many mother tongues spoken in this region. The municipal councilors of the DPS-SDP coalition in Pljevlja are demanding the change of the names of two streets – Nikola Pasic and King Petar Karadjordjevic. At issue are streets that used to bear the names of Marshal Tito and Boris Kidric, which were renamed by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) at the beginning of the 90s. The names of the streets are not part of the cultural-historical tradition of this town and Montenegro, states local opposition leaders who are ruling Montenegro, while historian Zvezdan Folic assesses that the streets received names after those people who contributed for Montenegro to disappear in 1918. The author of the new names is Beba Dzakovic, a longtime DPS deputy. The demolition of the building of the first Serb school is the first case of destroying such facilities on the territory of Montenegro. The first Serb school was registered as a cultural monument in the urban plan of the Bijelo Polje municipality in 1985. The fact that everything that reminds of the common history of the two nations is perfidiously “hit” by the authorities is also testified with the example from Mojkovac, where the DPS and SDP decided, as soon as they assumed power, that the in the future the municipal holiday will be 13 August, the date when the first authorities were formed in 1955 in the present borders, instead of the first day of Christmas, 7 January.

 

Lajcak: Amending B&H Constitution isn’t more difficult than Kosovo issue (Nezavisne Novine)

Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak has stated that B&H must amend the Constitution and that nobody can convince him that the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling is more difficult than the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations. “If Serbia was able to resolve the Kosovo problem, then agreement in the Sejdic-Finci case can’t be more difficult,” Lajcak told Nezavisne Novine. “B&H will have to amend its Constitution and the only question is in what way. The key thing is that these amendments are the decision of the B&H political parties. Nobody from outside will decide on how deep these amendments should be,” said Lajcak. Comparing B&H with Belgium that became an EU member as a much decentralized state, Lajcak said this is possible, since at issue is a functional state. “B&H can be a decentralized state, but it must have an internal mechanism so it can function in the EU and speak in one voice. Nobody in Belgium disputes the prime minister or the foreign minister. That is the difference,” said Lajcak.

Asked in what way should one view the Croat issue and their fear that other nations can outvote them and whether this is “Dayton-like thinking,” Lajcak said: “That is the reality in B&H. The Dayton Constitution states there are three constitutive nations. Of course, the Croats are most vulnerable and smallest of nations. They feel most threatened and this is why they are fighting not to lose their status.”

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbian ruling party agrees to seek early election (Reuters, by Aleksandar Vasovic, 26 January 2014)

The leadership of Serbia's dominant Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) agreed on Sunday to seek an early parliamentary election, aiming to capitalise on a surge in popularity to cement its grip on power and push through economic reforms.

After a meeting in Belgrade, SNS leader and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters the party's presidency had endorsed his proposal.

"Our bid is based on the fact that Serbia could do faster, more and better and that changes cannot wait," he said.

The SNS, the largest party in the ruling coalition, wants an even stronger mandate to help speed up reforms it says are essential to Serbia's recovery from a decade of war and isolation in the 1990s.

Tension within the coalition over the pace and depth of reform saw Economy Minister Sasa Radulovic, a non-party member of the cabinet, resign on Saturday due to resistance from unions and some in government to measures aimed at liberalising the labour market and cutting loose dozens of loss-making state firms.

The Balkan country must also speed up reforms to make a precautionary loan deal with the International Monetary Fund in talks set to begin on Feb. 26.

The SNS is riding high in opinion polls, mainly due to Vucic's popularity and an anti-graft campaign he has been waging. An SNS election victory would almost certainly see him as prime minister and could force the Socialists of Prime Minister Ivica Dacic into opposition.

The state-run RTS TV reported that Dacic is expected to convene his cabinet on Monday and propose to the president he dismiss government and schedule elections for March 16, to coincide with the municipal vote in the capital Belgrade.

On Saturday, Dacic said the election should not be an obstacle for Serbia's bid to join the European Union. "Serbia's strategy is based on reforms, better living standards for its people and EU membership," he said in a statement.

The EU opened accession talks with Serbia on Jan. 21, a process that should help drive change in the largest country to emerge from the former federal Yugoslavia. Serbia is unlikely to join before 2020.

 

Serb Ruling Parties Call for Early Vote to Shake Up Cabinet (Bloomberg News, by Gordana Filipovic and Misha Savic, 27 January 2014)

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his deputy in the government will ask President Tomislav Nikolic to order March elections by Jan. 29 to shuffle the cabinet amid rising unrest over a shaky economic recovery.

Dacic will make the request after Deputy Premier Aleksandar Vucic’s Progressive Party, whose popularity has soared in the past year, pushed for a ballot two years earlier than the government’s term ends.

The largest former Yugoslav republic is working to attract investors and meet demands to mend ties with Kosovo, strengthen the judiciary and make the economy more transparent after starting talks on Jan. 21 to join the European Union. New elections are designed to fight mounting voter anger over unemployment and the view the government is powerless to make changes. Economy Minister Sasa Radulovic resigned on Jan. 25, saying he lost faith in the cabinet’s work.

Elections on March 16 would be the “best possible solution to win new political legitimacy and lead Serbia forward, soothing political tensions in the society,” Dacic said today after agreeing to the Progressives’ demand for snap vote March 16.

Dacic, the head of the Socialist Party, and Vucic are shaking off associations tied to their nationalist pasts in the 1990s, when their party leaders, Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Seselj, led Serbia through the Balkan civil wars that devastated the economy, led to the split-up of Yugoslavia and left Serbia far behind other former European communist nations in developing their societies to western Europe.

Progressive Popularity

Vucic’s Progressives have campaigned for early elections for almost a year as the party’s support rose above 40 percent of decided voters in the country of 7.2 million people, according to a December opinion poll by Ipsos Strategic Marketing.

Dacic has reigned over the coalition since it was formed in July 2012, while early elections would most likely give Vucic the reins of government.

“There is some connection between Radulovic’s resignation and the decision to call early elections, giving voters a chance to support the reforms,” said Predrag Simic, a political analyst in Belgrade and the former Yugoslav ambassador to France, in a phone interview yesterday. “The situation is a bit confusing, non-transparent, because everyone is for holding elections and everyone is for reforms, so you don’t see who’s an obstacle to those reforms.”

On Track

Vucic said early elections will not stifle the drive to join the 28-nation EU or slow the government’s commitment to re-establish a precautionary loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF will complete its next round of meetings in Belgrade three days before the suggested March 16 elections. Nikolic is also a member of the Progressives.

“We’re looking for a fresh full mandate,” Vucic said at a press conference yesterday in Belgrade. “We believe Serbia can move forward faster and better.” He said he had refused an offer to take the prime minister’s post without elections.

Vucic, who was also elected president of his party, stopped short of pushing for a snap ballot in August, after Dacic ejected former Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic and his party from the government. Instead, Dacic shuffled the cabinet, giving Vucic the finance and economy ministries.

Along with Nikolic, the Progressives’ former president, its members include central bank Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic. She was named after the Progressives won 24 percent in a 2012 election but then had to share power and give Ivica Dacic and his Socialist Party the prime minister’s post to avoid having to return to the opposition.

Unemployment Anger

Investors demanded 337 basis points, or 3.37 percentage points, of extra yield to hold Serbian dollar bonds instead of Treasuries by 9:42 a.m. in Belgrade, compared with 125 for Poland, the region’s biggest economy, according to indexes by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Yields on Serbia’s Eurobonds maturing in 2021 rose 3 basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 6.151 percent, after gaining 31 basis points in two days by the end of last week’s trading, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The dinar shed 0.54 percent to trade at 116.0560 per euro.

The elections would come amid simmering discontent among workers and occasional street protests. Unemployment is languishing at almost a quarter of the workforce.

In measures aimed at clinching $250 million in World Bank budget support, the government has cut public sector wages and is planning to sell or turn around hundreds of state-owned companies that cost the Balkan state $750 million a year.

Following two recessions in the last three years, the central bank sees the economy expanding 1.5 percent this year, after an estimated 2.4 percent in 2013.

Budget Plans

Serbia’s new government will need to narrow the planned 2014 budget shortfall to 6.5 percent of economic output from an original target of 7.1 percent of gross domestic product to qualify for the World Bank’s budget support loan.

Finance Minister Lazar Krstic said the full-year 2013 deficit came at 179 billion dinars ($2.1 billion) or 20 billion dinars less than planned, according to a statement posted on his ministry’s website. The ministry has not published the budget statistics for 2013. The full-year consolidated deficit target for last year was 178 billion dinars.

The Washington-based World Bank also wants Serbia to adopt laws on asset sales and bankruptcy.

The government is also trying to secure 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in loans from the United Arab Emirates, included in the 2014 budget as the main source of deficit financing.

An IMF agreement would assure investors of the government’s commitment to implement tough measures that could leave tens of thousands out of work.

Snap elections would temporarily stall “economic reforms but the expected overwhelming victory of the pro-reform SNS would improve the outlook for their eventual implementation once the party would take office,” Otilia Dhand, an analyst at political risk evaluator Teneo Intelligence, said in a Jan. 23 e-mail. “An electoral victory would provide Vucic with a strong mandate to implement difficult economic reforms and remove the necessity to compromise with other parties.”

 

Serbia hopes to conclude EU negotiations by 2020 (New Europe, 26 January 2014)

Serbia has begun talks to join the European Union. Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said in Brussels that this is a landmark moment for his country. “This Cabinet took office 18 months ago and nobody expected this from us,” Dacic said. “We surprised you, because expectations were very low.”

Serbia hopes to conclude negotiations over EU membership by 2020, Dacic said. Neighboring Croatia became an EU member state last year, ending a process that took about six years to complete.

The Serbian leader said that he wants the Balkan nation to be fully in line with EU requirements by 2018, giving Serbia a two-year cushion before joining when the bloc enters a new budgetary cycle. Dacic said Serbians “are working to travel this road fast”.

The 28-countries EU’s decision to open membership talks with Serbia acknowledges Belgrade’s efforts to improve relations with breakaway Kosovo and push through overall reforms. Serbia hopes that the talks will pave the way for foreign investment.

A top level official at the Greek Foreign Ministry told New Europe that Greece, which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency, favours Belgrade’s efforts to move closer to the EU and plans to move ahead the process during its Presidency.

A vital breakthrough came in April last year when Serbia and Kosovo agreed to normalise relations, ending years of acrimony.

Kosovo broke away from Serbia in a conflict in 1999 and declared independence in 2008 - a move that was condemned by Belgrade.

But a Kosovo-Serbia deal was struck through EU mediation last year.

The EU Ambassador to Serbia, Michael Davenport, told the BBC that “Serbia has made a lot of progress over the last three or four years - putting much stronger emphasis on regional co-operation, and in particular trying to sort out the issue of Kosovo”.

The EU has dangled accession before both Belgrade and Pristina in order to guide the historic foes towards normalised relations. Dacic said, however, that “the EU accession process is not a matter linked to the status of Kosovo. Our stance with regard to Kosovo’s status does not change and was never on the agenda”.

 

Bosnian Serbs Plan Gavrilo Princip Monument (BIRN, by Elvira M. Jukic, 27 January 2014)

The authorities in Bosnia’s Serb-led Republika Srpska entity said they would erect a monument to 1914 Sarajevo assassin Princip as a part of World War I centenary events.

The Republika Srpska authorities said on Friday that the monument to Bosnian Serb assassin Princip would be erected in East Sarajevo, and would be identical to the one that is due to be installed in Kalemegdan Park in the Serbian capital Belgrade by June.East Sarajevo mayor Ljubisa Cosic argued that the city of Sarajevo played an important role in events during the build-up to the beginning of the World War 1.

“The organising committee and executive secretariat have the obligation in the next 20 days to prepare proposals for activities and a programme of work for the marking of 100 years from the beginning of World War I,” Cosic said.

But Republika Srpska’s President Milorad Dodik said that the Bosnian Serb authorities would not participate in events organised to mark the anniversary in Sarajevo itself.

Dodik said that it was clear to him that the intention was to blame the Serbs and Serbia for WWI, citing the removal of a monument to Princip in Sarajevo after Bosnia became independent from Yugoslavia.

“The key was the removal of the Gavrilo Princip monument from the place where it was in Sarajevo, which tells us there are no good intentions for the objective representation of that event [the start of WWI],” he said.

Sarajevo is getting ready to mark the centenary of Princip’s assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was killed in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914.

Bosnia was then part of Austria-Hungary, having been occupied in 1878 and then annexed in 1908.

The Archduke's assassination led directly to the outbreak of war between the Habsburg Empire and Serbia, when then drew in Russia, Germany, France, Britain, and others.

Views about Princip’s role are nowadays divided, as some see him as a hero while others accused him of being a Serb nationalist or a terrorist.

 

US Official Visits Macedonia Amid Pre-Poll Tensions (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 27 January 2014)

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Yee will meet top politicians and is expected to discuss Macedonia’s stalled Euro-Atlantic integration ahead of presidential polls in March.

Yee arrives on Monday in Skopje, where current political issues as well as the longstanding Greek-Macedonia name dispute that is stalling country’s Euro-Atlantic integration are expected to be the focus of his discussions with local leaders.

First to greet Yee will be Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov. Later he is expected to meet Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski as well as the heads of the main political parties in the country.

This is the first visit to the country for Yee, who was recently appointed to his State Department position. No other details about his visit have been officially revealed.

The US official arrives amid an already heated political atmosphere in Macedonia in advance of the country’s March presidential elections.

Yee is also expected to share his thoughts with local politicians on the possibility of staging parallel general elections along with the presidential polls.

This idea, which if accepted could further derail country's focus on solving the name issue with Greece, is being pushed by the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party of Prime Minister Gruevski.

The party is seeking consent from their junior ethnic Albanian partners, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

A DUI official who wished to remain anonymous told Balkan Insight that the US and the EU's stand on the issue of early general elections might be crucial for the party’s position.

So far the DUI has only said that it is considering the idea.

The name dispute with Greece as well as the current political situation in the country is expected to be discussed again next week when the Director General for Enlargement at the European Commission, Christian Danielsson, is expected to arrive in Macedonia.

 

Macedonian Media Law Changes Cautiously Welcomed (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 24 January 2014)

Macedonia's largest Journalist’s Association, ZNM, has welcomed parliament's decision to accept several amendments to controversial new media laws - while reiterating its fundamental opposition to the laws

While reiterating that its core concerns about media freedom in Macedonia remain, Macedonia's main journalists union said the passage of some amendments to the government's proposed media laws gave cause for hope.

“This is a step forward towards better laws, to which ZNM and foreign experts had many objections. This government's response gives hope for further improvement to the laws' content,” the ZNM said on Thursday.

MPs of the ruling coalition this week accepted several ZNM-proposed amendments to the Laws on Media and Audio Visual Services.

After parliament suddenly adopted the media laws on the eve of the New Year, many critics were caught by surprise and accused the government of foul play.

One key amendment wholly exempts internet media outlets from the new regulations while another reduces the obligations on the print media.

A third amendment allows the ZNM to appoint one representative to the new Media Agency, a regulatory body that the ZNM has said it fears will be state-controlled and in a position to curb media freedom.

A further amendment stipulates that any future ban on the publication of media content will have to match the practices and standards laid down by the European Court of Human Rights.

However, the ZNM said it still believed the new media laws were unnecessary, "when Macedonia is rapidly falling in world ranking charts that measure freedom of speech”.

The ZNM insists that any form of regulation of the printed media addressed by the new legislation remains essentially unacceptable.

Journalists says the media should strive towards greater self-regulation instead of accepting government-imposed regulation.

The ZNM also criticises the use of what it calls continuing “disproportionate” fines issued against media outlets and journalists.

In one case singled out by the ZNM, Macedonia’s oldest political weekly, Fokus, last week said it might have to close after a court imposed a heavy fine of 9,000 euros for libelling Macedonia's secret police chief, Saso Mijalkov.

The ZNM also says the new laws still leave room for the government to “buy the affection of the media”, partly by the selective allocation of lucrative government advertising.

“Besides this, we do not believe that the provisions about the Media Agency guarantee its independence and its transparent work,” the ZNM said.

The union says it will monitor implementation of the disputed legislation, and if need be, contest it before the Constitutional Court.

The arguments about the legislation take place against a background of widespread closures of media outlets that were critical of the government.

The closures are one reason why many media watchdogs have downgraded Macedonia’s rating on the issue of freedom of speech.

The World Media Freedom Index 2013, published in January by Reporters Without Borders, ranked Macedonia in 116th place out of 179 countries.

This represented a sharp drop of 22 places from the previous year and a drop of 82 places compared to 2009. Four years ago, the country was ranked in 34th place in the same index.