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LOCAL PRESS

Serbia-EU talks opened (RTS)

The EU has opened accession talks with Serbia, Greek Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos announced in Brussels. After the end of the first Serbia-EU conference, he said that Serbia had confirmed strong commitment to EU integrations. He said that the EU negotiating framework for Serbia, drafted on the basis of previous EU enlargement experiences, but also taking into account the specific features related to Serbia, had been presented at the meeting. The goal is that Serbia should adopt and apply EU legal acquis, but also to ensure for Belgrade and Pristina to remain on the EU course, without blocking one another, said Venizelos. He said the day was splendid for EU prospects of the region and that he was glad that talks with Serbia had begun during Greece’s presidency of the EU.

This is a historic day both for Serbia and the EU, said EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, congratulating Serbia in the Serbian language. He said that the start of the talks was a well deserved recognition to the courageous moves of the Serbian leadership. He said he hoped that any early parliamentary elections in Serbia would not distract the leadership’s attention from the EU integration process.

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic assessed that today’s commencement of negotiations was the most important event for Serbia after WWII. “In the historical sense, this will determine our path further on,” Dacic told a press conference on the occasion of the commencement of negotiations between Serbia and the EU.

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated that the Serbian flag in front of the EU building next to the EU flags is a great symbol for our country, and also a sign that we can do what all European nations had done. “Our nation will not fully approve of many things, but we are ready to fulfill all of our obligations,” Vucic told a press conference on the occasion of the commencement of negotiations between Serbia and the EU. He assessed there were difficult tasks ahead of Serbia, but added he believed that Serbia would complete the accession talks by 2018.

 

Dacic: EU accession process does not concern Kosovo status (Tanjug)

“Serbia’s EU accession process is not an issue that concerns Kosovo’s status,” said Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic in Brussels. In reply to the question if the formulation from the regulation framework on the legally binding agreement means that, at the end of the association process, Serbia will have to recognize independence of Kosovo, Dacic said that Serbia, as a state, was not having private talks and that it was not his job to interpret EU documents. “Neither we nor they fully understand what that means as EU member-states do not share the same position on Kosovo. Our position on that issue will not change and has never been the subject of talks,” said Dacic. The Prime Minister has stated that at this moment there are no elements for signing a new agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, but that one should focus on implementing what had already been agreed in April last year. “There still needs to be the next agreement, but there are no elements for this. We are still working on the implementation of what had been agreed earlier,” said Dacic, noting that the issues have been opened regarding the judiciary, formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities, as well as certain topics on which there is only initial agreement such as telecommunications and energy. He said that there were also problems that would be discussed, such as property, the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian heritage in Kosovo. “Parliamentary elections in Kosovo are upcoming so we need to see under what conditions will Serbs be able to take part in them,” said Dacic, noting that agreements on mentioned issues cannot be reached during one or two rounds of dialogue with the Kosovo Premier Hashim Thaqi in Brussels.

 

Miscevic: Negotiations with EU, and what follows (RTS)

The Head of the Serbian negotiating team with the EU Tanja Miscevic has stated that it is realistic for Serbia to open two chapters by the end of the Greek presidency and points out that, apart from Chapter 35, it would be good to also open the chapter that concerns financial controls. “We had meetings in the European Commission in an attempt to find a partnership for the issue as to what chapters can be opened objectively this year, what will be difficult and what we must leave for next year. Our realistic expectation is to try to open at least two chapters during the Greek presidency,” Miscevic said in an interview to Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) in Brussels. “Chapters 23 and 24 are among the first to be opened, but their opening is an equally big job for us and the Commission that is having many consultations with member states, but I expect these chapters to open at the end of the Italian presidency in December,” said Miscevic, adding that some chapters will open this year through the screenings. Speaking about the further course of screenings, Miscevic says they will be completed by March 2015. “The first screening about Chapter 35 will be held a day after the conference. That is a novelty for both Serbia and the EU. We understand the material much better and the team is ready,” she said. The dialogue and the work of technical groups remains to be the manner of communication between Belgrade and Pristina, but Serbia will receive a new instrument through Chapter 35, explains Miscevic. “In this chapter we are stating what we have done in the implementation of the Brussels agreement and the Action Plan, what are the problems, how do we see the solutions – it is an instrument that can help both the normalization and the negotiations. Serbia is now determining its future, not in the sense of potential membership, but in the sense of creating a society that will resemble all the European ones surrounding us,” said Miscevic.

 

Fule: No time to relax (Tanjug)

“A series of challenges is yet ahead for Serbia on its path of European integrations. There is no time to relax,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule has told Tanjug. Belgrade will have to remain fully committed to normalizing relations with Pristina and continue to implement the Brussels Agreement, and step up efforts aimed at reaching European standards as well as carrying out reforms, particularly with respect to the rule of law, Fule told Tanjug. He recalled that the process of normalizing relations with Pristina will be covered by Chapter 35, to be presented in detail at upcoming screening sessions. Fule dismissed objections that the EU is placing too much emphasis on the Kosovo issue in the process of Serbia’s European integrations and putting internal reforms in Serbia on the back burner. On the contrary, internal reforms concerning the rule of law and establishing a market economy represent the essence of the accession talks, Fule noted. He declined to comment on speculations about early elections in Serbia, adding that, as far as he is aware, the decision on the matter has not been made yet, but that it is fully in the hands of Serbian politicians. Regardless of that, the EU expects Serbia to remain fully committed to implementing reforms and to the dialogue, Fule said, adding that timely and consistent implementation is of key significance.

 

Djuric: EU is not a dogma or an ideology, but it is in Serbia’s interest (Novosti)

Serbian President’s Advisor Marko Djuric said that Serbia is not implementing the EU integration process for dogmatic or ideological reasons, but in order that its institutions should grow stronger, its influence in the region increased and its voice heard all over Europe. He said that Serbia, by acquiring the right to sit at a table in Brussels where decisions affecting the lives of all its citizens are made, also acquires an obligation to, in a complex setting, fight for the realization of its interests in the most diverse areas.

 

Lavrov: Russia must do everything for stability in the Balkans (Beta)

“It is Russia’s duty to do everything for stability in the Balkans,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He said there were many problems in the Balkans, especially in Kosovo and Metohija and B&H. He emphasized that all those problems had occurred after the fragmentation of Yugoslavia and due to numerous external factors. Russia strongly supports the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the process should be conducted in line with international legal frameworks.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Covic: Two electoral units in B&H Federation acceptable (FTV)

The HDZ B&H leader Dragan Covic said that it is acceptable to his party to define two fixed electoral units in the Federation for election of members of the B&H Presidency. “It is just necessary to determine which cantons belong to them,” stressed Covic. He told FTV that the model of indirect election through the B&H Parliamentary Assembly is also acceptable for the HDZ B&H. The HDZ B&H Presidency held a session in Kresevo where they discussed the current political situation in B&H and the implementation of the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the Sejdic-Finci case.

 

Nimetz to speak before EP (Utrinski Vesnik)

UN mediator in the Greek-Macedonian name dispute Matthew Nimetz will make an address before the European Parliament (EP). The concrete date of the event has not been set yet, Utrinski Vesnik writes. The news has been confirmed by sources from the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. The invitation has been sent by the chairperson of the committee, German MEP Elmar Brok. Utrinski Vesnik comments further that while a confirmation for the visit of the Greek foreign minister to Skopje is being awaited, the Greek ambassador to Macedonia is expected to make an address before the Macedonian parliament, where he would present the priorities of the Greek EU Presidency.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia starts EU membership talks (EUobserver, by Valentina Pop, 21 January 2014)

Berlin - It was on the UN sanctions list and bombed by Nato in the 1990s Balkan wars, but Serbia on Tuesday (21 January) officially started EU membership talks at a ceremony in Brussels.

It will take several years of talks before it can join.

But the Serbian Prime Minister, Ivica Dacic, who flew in to the EU capital, described the event as the "most important moment for Serbia since the end of World War II.”

He said his country is now seen for what it wants to be - an EU member state - instead of people focusing on its role in past conflicts.

"This cabinet took office 18 months ago and nobody expected this from us. We surprised you, because expectations were very low," he noted.

He added that he had never heard "such nice words about Serbia" since the times of the Yugoslav-era Communist leader Josip Tito, who was popular in the West for his liberal policies compared to the rest of the Soviet bloc.

"I am sorry there was nothing to sign today, else I would have sent the pen to the museum," Dacic quipped.

He promised to continue Serbia’s normalisation of relations with Kosovo - the main sticking point in recent EU-Serb relations, but dodged the question whether his government will ever recognise the independence of its former province.

Dacic noted that EU member states themselves have "different positions" on Kosovo status.

"Nobody in Brussels asked us to change our position. Our goal is the normalisation of relations with Pristina, we need that," he said.

The government in Belgrade will continue reforms and aims to wrap up EU negotiations by 2020, he added.

For neighbouring Croatia, who joined the EU in July 2013, it also took six years to complete accession talks.

For his part, EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele praised Serbia for its efforts on Kosovo.

He said the start of accesion talks is a "well-deserved recognition" of the developments.

He said this time around talks will start with the most difficult "chapters" - justice and home affairs - which will be also the last ones to be closed.

"There are new elements in the accession process based on lessons learned. These changes have the goal to strengthen the credibility of this process," Fuele said, referring to ongoing corruption problems in the last three EU countries which joined, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia.

 

Bringing Serbia in from the cold? EU talks begin (CNBC, by Holly Ellyatt, 21 January 2014)

Serbia begins official negotiations to join the European Union (EU) on Tuesday, talks which it hopes will allow it to join the trading bloc by 2020 and give its sluggish economy a boost.

As talks between the Balkan nation and the 28-nation bloc started in Brussels Tuesday, the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said they represented "the start of an entirely new chapter in our relations and a major success."

Indeed, relations have been thorny between Serbia -- a traditional ally of Russia -- and the EU over a number of issues that are politically and historically painful for both sides. A particular source of tension has been the fallout of the bloody conflict following the dissolution of the Balkan bloc of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Accession talks have previously been delayed or unsuccessful due to the Serbia's reluctance to give up suspected war criminals, recognize the independence of Kosovo and to reform its judiciary along European lines.

Why does Serbia need the EU?

Serbia needs access to the EU's 28-nation market after several years of financial crisis including two recessions. Deputy Prime Minister Aleksander Vucic himself caused a huge controversy late last year when he told national TV that his country was on the verge of bankruptcy – an assertion that was dismissed by economists.

Serbia's consolidated budget deficit has risen to 7.1 percent of output, however, and there are concerns over delays to much-needed economic reforms. Such fears prompted ratings agency Fitch to downgrade Serbia's long-term local and foreign currency ratings from BB minus to B plus last Friday.

However, according to the Serbian Ministry of Finance, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2 percent in 2013, having contracted 1.7 percent in the previous year. Although its debt to GDP ratio stood at 59.1 percent in 2013, it's worth bearing in mind that the figure stood at 34.8 percent in 2009.

Responding to the Fitch report, the Finance Ministry said in a statement: "The ministry will insist on the diligent implementation and broadening of reforms to lower the fiscal deficit and public debt and to secure growth."

European Commission President Manuel Barroso commended for its reform efforts and for the progress made over the past years on Tuesday, however, and said the EU would "continue to support Serbia to make progress, step by step, on its European path."

Signalling that the road to the EU won't be easy, however, Barroso underlined the challenges for Serbia, a press release from the EU noted. The list said these challenges centered on "the key areas of rule of law, including the reform of the judiciary, the fight against corruption and against organized crime, public administration reform, independence of key institutions, media freedom, anti-discrimination and protection of minorities."

Timothy Ash, the head of emerging market research at Standard Bank, told CNBC that Serbia would not let its chance of EU membership pass it by, however.

"Serbs see themselves as having a European outlook and EU accession is important for the country and investors. It has a lot of economic problems -- particularly on the fiscal side and the country is servicing a lot of debt. EU membership would act as an anchor for them," Ash told CNBC on Tuesday.

He believed that the sticking point to talks could lie around the unresolved issue of the Republic of Kosovo, whose independence Serbia has, as yet, failed to recognize along with its political ally Russia.

"They've set this 2020 date but the Kosovo issue remains outstanding. I think the EU is pleased with the progress that the current nationalist administration has made since it came to power in 2012 in normalizing relations with Kosovo."

"Awarding Serbia this EU candidate status is a sign of that."

 

Serbs See Future Alongside Former EU Foes After Bloody Past (2) (Bloomberg, by Michael Winfrey and Gordana Filipovic, 20 January 2014)

Milos Simic remembers huddling in a shelter 15 years ago, fearing for his life, as NATO bombers hammered the capital of Serbia and drove the nation into chaos.

Today, the 37-year-old realtor touts the investment potential of Belgrade, where rundown buildings still bear the scars of the war. A plan to become part of the European Union with Serbia’s former foes in the 1999 U.S.-led assault is the only way to move beyond the bloody past, rekindle trust in the economy and improve wealth for future generations, he says.

“At least I hope my children will have a happier life,” Simic said by phone in Belgrade. “There’s nothing else we as Serbians can choose, but as we get closer to the EU, things like investments will become all the more available.”

Serbs, whose country led Yugoslavia under strongman Slobodan Milosevic before it collapsed, begin official talks tomorrow to join the EU as they struggle to emerge from the effects of two recessions since 2009. The start of negotiations follows years of resistance to EU demands to give up suspected war criminals, renounce its claims on the former province of Kosovo and bring the judiciary into line with EU norms.

Though Prime Minister Ivica Dacic says he wants to achieve membership in the world’s largest trading bloc within six years, Croatia, a former Yugoslav partner that joined in July 2013, needed eight. That compares with the 6 1/2 years it took for Slovenia, the first applicant from the defunct federation to be accepted in 2004.

EU Ready

“The goal is for Serbia to be ready by 2018 for European Union membership and prepared to be accepted by the EU as a member with the start of their next budget cycle in 2020,” Dacic told B92 broadcaster in Belgrade.

While other ex-communist states that joined the EU have seen living standards surge, Serbia has languished at about a third of the EU average over the last decade. At the same time, it has won only half of the foreign direct investment lured by the bloc’s poorest member, Bulgaria.

“Serbia has a different bar to meet,” said Tony Verheijen, the World Bank’s representative in Serbia. “The EU has learned from the experience of letting in countries that didn’t have fully qualified institutions.”

Serbs consider Kosovo, a largely Muslim-majority enclave when it was the focus of the 1999 bombing that toppled Milosevic, as their religious and cultural heartland.

NATO Action

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization pushed Serb troops out of the territory 15 years ago, leading to its 2008 declaration of independence, which Serbia has never officially recognized.

Serbia was also at the center of the 1990s Balkan civil wars, the bloodiest fighting in Europe since World War II. That conflict left 140,000 people killed, 4 million more displaced and led the Yugoslav federation to eventually split into seven separate entities, including Kosovo.

While Milosevic died in custody in March 2006, other leaders are still being tried for war crimes and charges of ethnic cleansing.

With enlargement enthusiasm waning among some EU members since the first expansion into ex-communist Europe in 2004, the Balkan state will face closer scrutiny than previous candidates, particularly over tackling corruption, improving the rule of law and mending ties with Kosovo.

Economic Pickup

The economy will grow 1.5 percent this year, according to the central bank. The government has stepped up plans to sell state companies, consolidate the deficit by 2016 and renew talks with the International Monetary Fund, which cut off ties in 2012.

Investors have responded to the EU drive by pushing down the yield on the 2021 dollar bond to seven-months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield fell below 6 percent last week for the first time since June 6, from a record high of 7.469 percent on Sept. 10. It traded at 5.877 percent at 3:11 p.m. in Belgrade today.

Foreign direct investments, which totaled $24 billion from 1994 to 2012, are less than half of what neighboring Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest member, lured in the same period.

Serbia ranked 95th out of 178 countries, between Namibia and Lebanon, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom compiled by the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation. Unlike all 28 EU states, it fell in the “mostly unfree” category, with “widespread” graft, the foundation said in a report.

Court Reforms

It will be crucial for Serbia to overhaul its court system, where cases sometimes take as long as 20 years, compared with the EU average of eight months, said Serb EU chief negotiator Tanja Miscevic.

The country is also grappling with ultra-nationalists and organized crime. On March 12, 2003, then-Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, a pro-westerner who took a stand against the criminal underworld, was gunned down by a sniper in Belgrade.

“Investors need stability,” Nikola Stefanovic, head of the south Balkan arm of the Small Enterprise Assistance Fund, said on Jan. 14 in Vienna. “So even more important than talks is whether Serbia will succeed in implementing reforms, and this is what international investors are watching.”

“Serbia will also have to establish internal and external budget spending controls,” Miscevic said in an interview in her Belgrade office. “It’s related to the rule of law and to the fight against corruption and organized crime. It’s a major problem in the Western Balkans.”

Balkan Shortcomings

Stung by shortcomings in rule-of-law issues in Bulgaria and Romania, which joined in 2007, the commission says it will halt talks if Serbia doesn’t make progress.

Support for expansion is also waning across the EU, with 52 percent against, compared with 37 percent for enlargement, according to the EU’s Autumn 2013 Eurobarometer survey. The U.K., which supported eastern European countries’ entry in 2004, is now pressing for curbs on migration from the next countries to join.

And while 50 percent of Serbs backed entry in the Eurobarometer poll, anti-accession sentiment still simmers.

It’s not shared by Simic, who was standing in the backyard of his home when NATO jets bombarded Belgrade on March 24, 1999, shaking the ground and sending him sprinting three blocks to a dark air-raid shelter that stank of old clothing and overuse. It proved to be the last military campaign of the long Balkan conflict.

“Obviously it takes time to rebuild and recover,” said Simic. “Serbia can’t be an isolated island in Europe.”

 

Serbia secures 150 million euro boost from EIB (Reuters, 20 January 2014)

The European Investment Bank announced plans on Monday to loan 150 million euros to small and medium-sized companies in Serbia, funds aimed at helping the Balkan state improve infrastructure as it integrates more closely with the European Union.

The loan is the first installment of up to 500 million euros that the EIB, the EU's long-term financing arm, has set aside for lending to companies involved in energy, health, industry, tourism, trade and services.

The investment bank has invested more than 4 billion euros in Serbia since 2001 as the country has steadily emerged from the wars that followed Yugoslavia's collapse in the 1990s and put itself on the path towards EU membership.

The EU agreed in June that Belgrade could start negotiations on joining the 28-member bloc from the start of this year, rewarding the country for improving relations with its former province of Kosovo.

Since the removal of former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, Serbia's economy has undergone a rapid transformation, with per capita income rising nearly six-fold.

As well as investment from the EIB, Austria, Germany, Greece and Norway have all poured money into the country, helping it register steady growth in recent years.

While owned by the EU's member states, the EIB loans money beyond EU borders, including in Asia and Latin America. It has been active in the Western Balkans since 1977. (Writing by James Francis; editing by Luke Baker)

 

IMF, Serbia to discuss new loan deal in March: IMF (Reuters, 21 January 2014)

The International Monetary Fund said it will visit Serbia from late February to mid-March to discuss a new precautionary loan deal with Belgrade, after freezing a previous arrangement due to the government's failure to cap spending and the public debt.

Serbia, which begins European Union accession talks in Brussels on Tuesday, wants a back-up deal with the International Monetary Fund to reassure investors as it expects growth to slow to about 1 per cent this year from some 2 per cent in 2013.

"An IMF mission, led by Zuzana Murgasova, will visit Belgrade during February 26-March 13 to initiate discussions on a possible IMF-supported program," Mr Daehaeng Kim, the Fund's representative in Serbia, said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.

The Washington-based lender froze its previous 1 billion euro (S$1.73 billion) loan deal with Belgrade in 2012 due to overspending and rising debt.

 

Serbia to reconsider labor law in face of union opposition (Reuters, 20 January 2014)

Serbia's government, facing union opposition, said on Monday it would look again at draft legislation to liberalize the labor market, a move likely to further stoke concern among investors over the coalition's commitment to reform.

Trade unions had called a one-day strike for January 23, angry at proposed changes to working hours and rules on hiring and firing.

After a meeting with union leaders, the government said in a statement that it would form a joint working group with unions and business representatives to "consider the draft labor law, after which it will enter government and parliamentary procedure."

It gave no time frame.

The new consultations may fuel calls from some in the government for a snap parliamentary election, with the largest party - the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) - poised to take a decision this week on whether to go to voters in mid-March.

The SNS is riding high in opinion polls and several senior party officials have said a new and stronger mandate would help accelerate the pace of reforms crucial to overhauling an economy suffocated by red tape, a bloated public sector and dozens of loss-making state firms.

With Serbia due to formally begin European Union accession talks on Tuesday, investor interest in the biggest market to emerge from the ashes of federal Yugoslavia is growing.

Economy Minister Sasa Radulovic, an SNS appointee, warned last week that early elections would be preferable to delays in adopting laws on labor, privatization and bankruptcy.

Delays have already cost Serbia a downgrade of its long-term local and foreign currency ratings by Fitch ratings agency last week from BB- to B+, nudging Serbian debt deeper into the speculative category.

Fitch cited a rise in the country's consolidated budget deficit to 7.1 percent of output and stalled reforms.

 

European court ruling belongs to legal arena: appellants (Xinhua, 20 January 2014)  

The European Human Rights Court ruling should be dealt with by legal experts, instead of politicians of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), said two appellants on Sunday whose action led to the ruling.

Dervo Sejdic and Jakob Finci, the two appellants, said the ruling is "a simply" legal issue which should not be moved to political arena, reported Fena, the Federal News Agency of BiH.

The two launched an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights on the basis that BiH's Constitution violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

Under the Constitution of BiH, the presidency, which consists of three members, can only come from three constituent peoples: one Bosniak and one Croat elected from the Federation of BiH and one Serb elected from RS.

The European Court of Human Rights passed a ruling in favor of Sejdic and Finci in September 2009. The European Union has made the adoption of the ruling as a precondition for BiH to join the bloc.

The issue should be solved long ago by legal experts, according to Sejdic and Finci.

"Instead, we have seen it being moved to political arena, which is not in the spirit of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights," Finci was quoted by Fena.

The latest round of talks failed to reach an agreement over the ruling after 13 hours of negotiations between BiH parties, participated by European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fuele, from Friday to early Saturday morning.

 

Montenegro Removes Graffiti Mocking Srebrenica Massacres (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 21 January 2014)

The authorities in the northern Montenegrin town of Pljevlja ordered the erasing of graffiti that mocked the mass killings in Srebrenica and promoted Serb nationalism.

The Pljevlja authorities ordered on Monday that graffiti in the town centre with the words “Knife, Wire, Srebrenica”, a reference to the thousands of Muslims killed by Bosnian Serbs in 1995, caused offence to Bosniaks and should be removed.

The graffiti appeared last week and a local NGO, the Youth Forum of Bosniaks, immediately called for its removal, but the authorities only acted after the intervention of Bosnia’s ambassador to Montenegro, Izmir Talic.

As well as the Srebrenica graffiti, a graffiti portrait of a local commander from the Serbian nationalist Chetnik movement, Bozo Bjelica, who was executed in 1951, was also erased.

“There was no approval for the drawing and it was ordered to be whitewashed,” said Milovan Gogic, secretary of the local administration in Pljevalja, newspaper Blic reported.

According to Blic, police questioned those responsible for drawing the picture last week, but they claimed that it actually depicted Petar II Petrovic Njegos, a famous Montenegrin poet, bishop and 19th century ruler, not the Chetnik commander Bjelica.

This caused the NGO Amnesty to accuse the Pljevlja authorities on Monday of showing intolerance towards the town’s Orthodox population for ordering the removal of a picture of Njegos under pressure from Bosniak organisations.

Pljevlja lies near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has a mixed Montenegrin-Serb-Bosniak population.

The authorities in the past have also ordered the removal of anti-Serb graffiti in the town.