LOCAL PRESS

 

EU commends Belgrade, Pristina for judiciary agreement implementation (Beta)

 

Belgrade and Pristina have taken final steps towards fully implementing an Agreement on the Judiciary, the EU reported, commending both sides for this important achievement.

The European Commission spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic, said in a press release that in line with the decisions made on 30 November, Belgrade and Pristina have taken decisive steps towards full implementation of the agreement on the judiciary, adding that Serbia sent on 9 December a notification ending the service of judges, prosecutors and administrative staff as of 10 January 2017, allowing their integration with the Kosovo judiciary as of that date. “The appointment of judges, prosecutors and administrative staff on 10 January will allow for the advanced delivery of justice across Kosovo,” Kocijancic said in the press release.

 

Lavrov begins visit to Belgrade (Tanjug)

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday arrived in Belgrade, where he will meet with top Serbian officials.He will also attend a meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) on Tuesday.

Lavrov was welcomed at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and received by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in the Serbian government building, with a meeting with President Tomislav Nikolic to follow afterward. Lavrov and Minister of Labor, Employment and Veteran and Social Affairs Aleksandar Vulin will then lay wreaths at the Cemetery of the Liberators of Belgrade. Lavrov will meet with Dacic in the afternoon, with the two ministers also scheduled to speak to reporters.

 

Chapters 5, 25 certain to be opened, decision on Chapter 26 due Tuesday (Tanjug)

 

Following Friday's meeting of the Working Party on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession to the EU (COELA), Serbia looks almost certain to also open Chapter 25 in its EU accession talks along with Chapter 5 (public procurement) next Tuesday. Diplomatic sources in Brussels told Tanjug all EU member states have to date consented to the opening of Chapter 25 (science and research) without objections, but that it remained to be seen if Serbia would by the December 13 inter-governmental conference also get the green light to open Chapter 26 (culture and education). The sources said the COELA would also hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday in a bid to reach a consensus on a common EU position for Chapter 26, with Zagreb's consent still pending.

 

Parliament passes 2017 national budget (Beta)

 

The Serbian parliament passed the 2017 budget on Dec. 10. The budget was supported by 153 MPs, 26 were against it, and three abstained from voting. The draft budget plans RSD 1, 092.9 billion in income and RSD1, 162 billion in expenditures for a gap of RSD 69.1 billion.

The budget deficit, including project loans worth RSD 43.6 billion, is 1.7 percent of GDP, while the republican debt is 1.6 percent of GDP. The budget is based on a GDP growth rate of three percent, and a 2.4 percent rate of inflation. The 2017 total capital investment is RSD 147 billion, or 3.3 percent of GDP.

 

Kosovo, Montenegro premiers meet in Albania (B92)

 

A statement said Kosovo Premier Isa Mustafa and recently-elected Montenegrin counterpart Dusko Markovic met Sunday in Shkoder, close to the Montenegrin border. They talked about intensifying especially economic co-operation. The statement didn’t explain why the meeting was held in Albania. It also didn't say whether they discussed the ratification by Kosovo of a border demarcation agreement between them, the only remaining step needed for visa-free travel to EU countries.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

B&H receives EC Questionnaire (TV1)

 

B&H officially received the European Commission's (EC) Questionnaire, based on which the EU will decide whether the country is ready to join the Union. Namely, European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn handed over the Questionnaire, comprising 3,242 questions i.e. 33 chapters, to Chairman of the Council of Ministers of B&H (B&H CoM) Denis Zvizdic at a ceremony in Sarajevo. While the majority of B&H officials welcomed the country’s progress towards the EU, President of Republika Srpska (RS) and leader of SNSD Milorad Dodik stressed that adoption of the Law on Constitutional Court (CC) of B&H is more important to the RS than the European road of B&H or the EC’s Questionnaire. He reiterated that the Court of B&H and the Prosecutor’s Office of B&H are under direct rule of the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA) of B&H, which has made the system additionally decadent through pressures, surveillance and influence on courts and prosecutor’s offices. “The European Commission’s Questionnaire is sequence of what is necessary for the EU membership. The EU which will support such system and the decision-making manner in B&H, especially at the Constitutional Court of B&H and current decadence in institutions of B&H, is unacceptable for us,” underlined Dodik. B&H CoM Chairman Zvizdic, underlined that claims that B&H cannot be granted the status of EU candidate without implementation of the ‘Sejdic-Finci’ ruling, without shutting down of OHR or without elimination of foreign judges from the CC of B&H are not true.

 

Hahn: Issue of change of Constitution is in B&H’s hands (Dnevni list)

 

European Commissioner Johannes Hahn said that the EC will pay special attention to implementation of the ‘Sejdic and Finci vs. B&H’ ruling in the process of making of opinion in the B&H’s request for membership in the EU. According to Commissioner Hahn, priorities in B&H are still strengthening of the rule of law and improving cooperation between different levels of authorities. Regarding the constitutional organization of B&H, the Commissioner noted the EU recognizes the current situation, which will be analyzed in context of the EU Acquis during preparation of opinion on B&H’s request for membership in the EU. “There are currently possibilities to change the Constitution of B&H and the procedures are clearly determined. However, this issue is in hands of B&H,” said Commissioner Hahn.

 

EU demands reforms in judiciary (Dnevni avaz)

 

Head of the OSCE Mission to B&H Jonathan Moore stated that B&H judiciary is full of challenges and that there are too many open issues in this sector. “Once it becomes clear to everyone that things in the sphere of judiciary have to change and improve, we will have progress of B&H towards the EU. It is known that there are two chapters that the EU should open for B&H, and solve the problems in that sector. That is one more reason why we often say that the road to the EU is even more important that the membership itself”, he stressed.

Moore was also asked to comment the statement by the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), which recently assessed the war crime processing analysis by Judge Joanna Korner as benevolent and useful for improvement of work of judiciary, in context of his “strong resistance towards this report, especially by currently suspended Chief Prosecutor Goran Salihovic”. He replied by saying that B&H is a democratic country and people have right to their comments and reactions. “What matters the most to me today is that we have excellent cooperation with both the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of B&H regarding the war crime processing. With full support of the international community, for instance, the embassies of the USA and the UK, of course, and the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY Serge Brammertz, so I think that situation today is far better than it was”, he stressed.

As for appointment of President of the Court of B&H and SDA’s requests that this official is selected from the rank of Bosniaks, Moore noted that what is important is that individuals holding crucial positions are professionals and that they have experience and knowledge to do their job professionally and without conflict of interests.

 

B&H Croat military police officer gets 10 years in jail for war crimes in Orasje (Hina)

 

The B&H Court has sentenced, pending appeal, a former commander of the Military Police of the Bosnian Croat forces HVO, Mato Baotic, to ten years in prison for war crimes against Serb civilians and soldiers, the court said on Friday. Baotic was found guilty of rape, torture and inhumane treatment of Serb detainees in the area of Orasje, northern B&H, in the period from May 1992 to September 1993. He was also ordered to pay damages in the amount of EUR 30,000 to three raped women. The time he spent in custody will be credited to his prison sentence, the court said. The B&H judiciary is also conducting proceedings against ten former HVO members, including the wartime commander of the Orasje Military District, Djuro Matuzovic. They were arrested in late October on the suspicion that they were responsible, personally or in their capacity as commanding staff, for war crimes against Serb detainees.

 

SEC publishes near-final election results (MIA)

The State Electoral Commission issued its preliminary results from the early general elections held on Sunday. With 99.72 percent of the votes counted, the coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE won 452.709 votes, against 436.469 for the coalition led by SDSM. In percentages, VMRO-DPMNE won 38.06 percent of the vote, while SDSM has 36.69. Depending on the distribution of the votes across the electoral districts, projections show that VMRO-DPMNE will win just over 50 seats in Parliament, while SDSM would hold just under 50.

Among other parties, the Democratic Union for Integration, which represents mostly ethnic Albanian voters, won 86.812 votes, or 7.3 percent. It's chief rival in the ethnic Albanian camp is now the BESA party which won 57.927 votes (4.87 percent of the total), with the Alliance for Albanians and the Democratic Party of Albanians winning 35.091 and 31.017 votes.

Back in the Macedonian electoral camp, the Coalition VMRO for Macedonia won 24.449 votes. The far left Levica party won 12.119 votes, the Coalition for Change and Justice got 10.083 votes, and the Liberal Party has 3.840 votes. The minor ethnic Albanian party PDP has 1.142 votes.

At its press conference held at three in the morning, SEC informed that so far there were no complaints about the conduct of the elections, which was seen as orderly and with only negligible incidents across the country. Later on Monday, the SEC should come out with more detailed projections about the seats won and about the elections overall.

The results represent a significant change from the latest early elections in 2014, with VMRO-DPMNE winning slightly less votes, but losing seats due to the strong showing SDSM had with majority ethnic Albanian areas and due to the overall higher turnout. DUI saw a significant drop in its support, with areas that have historically voted for exclusively Albanian parties in some cases swinging to SDSM and in others to BESA. With no representatives projected to be elected from the diaspora district, the next Parliament should have 120 seats, down from the current 123, and a majority to form the Government will be at 61.

Across electoral districts, SDSM won the 1st district, which covers much of the capital Skopje and stretches to mountainous areas to the south. Based on completely compiled results, SDSM has 92.190 votes in this district, while VMRO-DPMNE won 72.833, and DUI is far in third place with 12.871. VMRO-DPMNE won the 2nd district, covering Skopje's northern suburbs and the city of Kumanovo, which also has a significant ethnic Albanian population. With all results in, VMRO-DPMNE won 73.707 votes, to SDSM's 69.837 and DUI's 16.863 and 16.119 for BESA.

VMRO-DPMNE won in their historic stronghold in the eastern 3rd district centered around Stip, with 102.832 votes, or 50.36 percent of the vote, against SDSM with 81.209 votes (39,77 percent). The fourth district, that covers Strumica, Prilep and Kavadarci from the center to the south-east, saw the leaders of the two main competing parties Nikola Gruevski and Zoran Zaev face off directly. Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE won 101.617 votes, and SDSM has 94.780 in the district that has Zaev's hometown and main base of political support Strumica.

In the south-western district 5, VMRO-DPMNE has a narrow lead over SDSM with 72.340 votes against 71.020. This district also has a sizeable ethnic Albanian population, which supported both SDSM but also DUI with 13.982 votes and the other smaller Albanian and Macedonian parties winning several thousand votes each.

The 6th district in the north-west is the only Albanian majority district in the country, having historically delivered the bulk of ethnic Albanian members of Parliament and was the main base for DUI. On Sunday, it was split much more evenly, with DUI winning 40.599 votes. VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM and BESA are closely matched behind DUI with 26.134, 25.828 and 25.054 votes respectively and DPA has 16.225 votes.

In the diaspora district, also labeled district 7, VMRO-DPMNE won 3.246 votes, SDSM has 1.605 and DUI won 875 votes. These are from voters from dozens of diplomatic missions across the world, mainly in Europe and North America. It was estimated that a party needs to win over 6.400 votes to gain at least one seat in this district, with up to three seats in play. Given the low turnout, it is unlikely that any party will win seats there.

 

Gruevski declares VMRO-DPMNE win, says coalition building period begins now (MIA)

 

Shortly after midnight, VMRO-DPMNE President Nikola Gruevski spoke to his supporters gathered in the party offices in downtown Skopje, and said that the party has won the elections, with a lead of about 20.000 votes with 88 percent counted. Gruevski announced that a period of coalition building will now begin, during which the party will not compromise on Macedonia’s national interests.

He added that it was an exceptionally difficult campaign given all that the country and the party have been through with the two and a half long wiretapping affair and political crisis. “We had a very difficult opponent. Our opponent was not SDSM alone, and you all know that very well. This gives our victory an exceptional weight and value. From the data analyzed so far, it is clear that the support for VMRO-DPMNE is within the parameters we’ve received in the past period. There were many surprises in the ethnic Albanian electorate. These elections showed that SDSM has won significant support from the ethnic Albanian voters in Macedonia. We will analyze these results further in the coming days, we will reach our conclusions, lessons and will draw the messages from the citizens of Macedonia”, said Gruevski.

 

Both VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM declared victory at the early general elections (MIA)

 

Both major political parties in Macedonia, VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, declared victory at the early general elections in which the preliminary results shows a narrow VMRO-DPMNE lead. SDSM spokesman Petre Shilegov went first, claiming that the party leads in a number of cities, including Skopje, Bitola, Kumanovo and Strumica, but also in majority ethnic Albanian areas which have historically voted for other parties, like DUI and DPA.

VMRO-DPMNE's Vladimir Gjorcev held a press conference in which he said that his party won 10th victory in a row, with a difference of 20.000 votes, adding that VMRO-DPMNE won the ethnic Macedonian majority while SDSM reduced the difference since the last elections with ethnic Albanian votes.

"All indicates a major victory for the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia. The regime has fallen", said Shilegov in his press conference, as hundreds of SDSM supporters began gathering in front of the Government building to celebrate. Shilegov said that SDSM analytics show that they have 51 seats in Parliament, as many as VMRO-DPMNE will have, with the four parties that represent ethnic Albanians dividing the other 18 seats. Shilegov said that his party leads in the 1st district that covers much of the capital Skopje, lost the 3rd, eastern district and is even in all other regions.

Gjorcev listed a number of results from majority ethnic Macedonian cities, where VMRO-DPMNE is in the lead, at the same time congratulating SDSM on being more successful with ethnic Albanians. "Our people won again. In these elections, VMRO-DPMNE was not only against SDSM, but against a greater black campaign. In the end, we showed that the country is still standing, and that despite everything that was thrown at us, VMRO-DPMNE won the elections", said Gjorcev.

 

Ahmeti says DUI won in the elections, but that overall, Albanians lost (Republika)

 

Democratic Union for Integration leader Ali Ahmeti said that his party won among the ethnic Albanian voters, but that he is not happy because Albanians have lost seats in the Parliament. Due to a drop in support for the party, that has gone both to SDSM and smaller ethnic Albanian parties like BESA and the Alliance for Albanians, DUI stands to see a significant drop in seats it holds in Parliament, with a drop in overall ethnic Albanian seats as well. Ahmeti said that, after the elections, his party will work to push the country forward, toward full stabilization.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

McAllister: Progress in the Belgrade – Pristina negotiations are decisive (European Western Balkans, 10 December 2016)

 

BERLIN – Serbia’s further progress in the negotiations with the EU directly dependent on progress in the negotiations with Pristina, and is crucial for opening new chapters, said on Friday the European Parliament Rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister.

“Serbia made many new friends in Europe through the management of the refugee crisis. It was carefully noted how this topic was treated differently in other countries in the region” said McAllister to Deutsche Welle (DW) in response to the question whether Serbia in now the most exemplary pupil EU in the Western Balkans. McAllister stated that EU praises the Western Balkans where they deserve it, and criticize them where nothing was done or if they regressed.

“But, you’re right. For Serbia we definitely need progress on fundamental issues: the strengthening of the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, the fight against corruption… At that Serbia must work”, explains McAllister. Answering the question on the relationship of the authorities towards the media, McAllister says that media independence is a fundamental prerequisite for a functioning democracy. Asked if the EU puts pressure not to leave everything to promises, the Rapporteur for Serbia said that it is true that the laws should be implemented and in practice. “In fact, it’s not just about the law, we need a political climate in which diverse media scene is considered the wealth of society,” he said.

 

Lavrov: NATO trying to drag Montenegro into alliance before Obama leaves office (TASS, 9 December 2016) HAMBURG /Germany/. Attempts are being made to drag Montenegro into NATO before US President Barack Obama leaves office, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg. "NATO has been advancing its infrastructure towards Russia’s borders. For the first time in many years, the US has been deploying its heavy military assets in the Baltic states," the Russian minister noted. "But still, NATO keeps repeating that it won’t admit new members." "Frantic attempts are being made to drag Montenegro into NATO, no one asks if this country’s people want it although it would no harm to have consultations on such matter," Lavrov added. "It seems, the goal is to make Montenegro a NATO member before Barack Obama leaves office. However, these attempts do NATO no credit."