LOCAL PRESS

 

Declaration on Missing Persons signed in Mostar (RTS)

The Presidents of Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro Tomislav Nikolic, Ivo Josipovic, Filip Vujanovic and the Chairman of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic signed today in Mostar the declaration on missing persons and agreed that this document is aimed at encouraging the search for people gone missing in the region of former Yugoslavia and defines the responsibility of the state in the resolution of this issues. With this document the states of the region, republics of the former Yugoslavia, have confirmed their commitment to solving the problem of missing persons, which had emerged as a consequence of the armed conflicts and infringements of human rights, within the competence of the states in providing the lasting peace and improving the cooperation in democratic societies.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has said that Serbia will never give up on searching for the missing persons or demanding that the perpetrators of the crimes be tried and punished. For this problem there is no notion of being obsolete, thus pushing it into oblivion, Nikolic said, adding that Serbia will do everything to find all the missing persons in its territory. “The fact is that today, despite all difficulties, we have signed the Declaration, which should give additional boost to the efforts in relieving the ethical burden of the missing persons,” the President underlined. According to him, the list of the missing people registered with the Serbian Government Commission, and pertaining to the armed conflict in Croatia from 1991 to 1995, has the names of 1,751 persons whose fate has still not been solved. Nikolic has reminded that there are still 11 thousand such people in the whole region.

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic has said that the solving of the issue of mission persons is a humanitarian priority for the Croatian Government. The Chairman of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic has underlined that the accomplishments in this field in that country may serve as an exemplary model for the other state of the region. So far, out of 30 thousand missing people, 22 thousand have been found, but unfortunately 8,000 are still missing, he specified. Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic has emphasized that the number of missing persons in that country is in dozens, and added that it proves Montenegro was exempted from the war events.

The Chairman of the International Missing Persons Committee Thomas Miller has pointed that this is a historic day, adding that out of 40 thousand listed persons that went missing during the armed conflict in former Yugoslavia, in 1990’s, more than 70% have been identified. He added that the countries of the region have shown strong ability to take over the process of searching for them. Chairperson of the regional coordination of the families of the missing, Ljiljana Alvir has invited the representatives of all signatory countries to engage in implementing the Declaration, so that it would not remain “a dead letter”.

 

Stefanovic requests urgent meeting with EULEX and KFOR (TV Pink)

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic has stated that he had requested an urgent meeting with EULEX and KFOR representatives over the attack in the Ground Safety Zone near Kursumlija. He said that he expected the meeting would be held in Belgrade in the next several days. Stefanovic told TV Pink that he would point out at the meeting that absolute security needs to be ensured for the population and members of the security forces. He said that the present situation is stable following the murder of Gendarmerie member Stevan Sindjelic. He said that he had sent additional police forces that are on the ground, reinforced detachments of gendarmes and that cooperation with EULEX and KFOR is being realized in terms of securing the entire region. “We must undertake everything in our power so we could have more measures and perhaps a stronger police presence in the future, so it never happens again that a police member is killed while doing his job,” said Stefanovic. He said that yesterday’s attack was a “direct terrorist attack” and that they were working on finding the perpetrators through cooperation with EULEX and KFOR. He said that he would initiate a meeting with the prosecution, courts where they would discuss stricter penal policy for attacks on policemen.

 

 

Stankovic: Greater KFOR efficiency necessary (RTS)

The Head of the Coordination Body for South Serbia Zoran Stankovic says that state officials are having discussions with EULEX towards finding best solutions for incidents in southern Serbia. KFOR, as the competent institution for the administrative line between southern Serbia and Kosovo, must act in a more responsible and efficient manner so incidents would not repeat, Stankovic told Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS). “Competent state officials are regularly communicating with EULEX and looking for the best possible solutions towards preventing cutting of woods in this region,” said Stankovic. Commenting electricity payment as one of the numerous problems in this part of Serbia, Stankovic says that laws must be respected, so paying electricity is also a legal obligation for all citizens. “Local self-administrations are aware that laws must be respected. Measures should be applied to those who are not respecting the law or they should be assisted in resolving the problems that have,” says Stankovic. Taking into account that the elections for National Councils for national minorities are scheduled for 26 October, he expects that the Albanian national minority will take part in the elections in large numbers. According to him, the Albanians in southern Serbia have a problem because they don’t know the Serbian language sufficiently, and in order to resolve this problem a study has been done where certain recommendations had been stressed. “One of the recommendations is that teachers must be trained for this job, considering that none of the 41 teachers who are teaching Albanian children have adequate training,” said Stankovic.

 

Cooperation in the region resolves issue of missing persons (Danas)

The fate of 11,175 missing people who went missing in the conflicts in the region of former Yugoslavia continues to be unknown and as long things stay this way we cannot be satisfied with the activities completed on the resolution of the issue of missing. One third of this number (4,022) are Serbs and we can receive an answer as to what happened with them only through cooperation of the states in the region, devoid of daily politics, it was conveyed at yesterday’s press conference held on the occasion of the marking of the International Day of the Disappeared. The Chairman of the Serbian government Commission for Missing Persons Veljko Odalovic talked about the lack of reciprocity that is noticeable in the region when it comes to the resolution of the issue of missing. “In 2012, Serbia shed light on the fate of 705 missing persons, in 2013 it shed light on the fate of 671. In the next ten days we will identify around 50 Albanians whose bodies had been discovered in Rudnica. On the other side, B&H and Kosovo haven’t shed light on the fate of one single person of Serb nationality this year, and chances are that they will not. That speaks of the fact that we don’t have the same treatment towards the issue of missing persons. Serbia is doing what other countries request from it, while they are not doing what we insist on,” said Odalovic. According to him, despite this uneven approach, Serbia will continue to do everything in its power. He said that a representative from Kosovo will not be present at the signing of the declaration in Mostar, because it is signed by states and Serbia could not allow this. Dusko Celic, deputy president of the Coordination of Serb Associations of the Families of Missing, said that the report of the U.S. Prosecutor Clint Williamson is offensive to the families of the missing. “That report doesn’t mention at all the existence of a court, prosecution or any kind of indictments. The report serves exclusively to confirm the statehood of Kosovo. Unfortunately, by giving support to that document, the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution also took part in all this,” said Celic. According to him, as the statute of limitations of criminal offenses are not stopping even though there is no court yet, we will find ourselves in a situation where the court will be established in 2015 that will only be able to conclude that all deadlines have expired. “Had there been the wish to establish the truth in Kosovo, the West could have done this easily,” said Celic. He adds that it is defeating that Serbia is the only country of the region that doesn’t have a law on missing persons that could deal with this issue in a systematic way. Nedeljko Mitrovic, the Chairman of the Republic organization of families of captured and killed civilians of the Republika Srpska (RS), opines that the families of missing persons in the RS are in a particularly difficult situation over the “demonization of Bosniaks and Western states”. According to him, the unequal position of Serb victims has also been noticed by the European Commission that voiced concern over the small number of exhumed and identified victims of Serb nationality. “When the issue of missing in B&H was handed over to the International Office for missing persons, the Bosniaks started with the obstruction. Everything was much more efficient while the entity commissions were doing this job,” said Mitrovic. He adds that the Bosniaks are blocking the identification process, because they are using the issue of missing for political purposes. According to him, the declaration in Mostar is “yet another in a series of pamphlets”.

 

Vukcevic denies EU and OSCE allegations (Tanjug)

Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic denied the allegations by EU and OSCE representatives that Serbia is not prosecuting high-ranking war crimes suspects. OSCE Mission to Serbia Head of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Department Romana Schweiger and Head of Operations with the EU Delegation in Serbia Yolanda San Jose stated that Serbia has not prosecuted important war crime cases in which suspects are high-ranking officials. Schweiger stated that Serbia made considerable progress in the implementation of justice in war crimes cases and San Jose pointed to the efficient legal framework and regional cooperation in the prosecution of the cases. Nevertheless, the two officials told reporters in the Belgrade High Court that the problem concerning witness protection has not been solved yet. Addressing a news conference, Vukcevic said that Serbia was not in the position to prosecute high-ranking suspects because the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia was in charge of them. The Hague tribunal prosecuted mid- and high-ranking officials and we had the jurisdiction over the cases involving low-ranking suspects only, so we did what we could, he said. There was absolutely no case in which we rejected criminal charges, even the ones against high-ranking suspects, on condition that we assessed there is enough evidence to substantiate criminal prosecution, he said. He noted that the Prosecutor’s Office did not attach much attention to existence of political support. The prosecutor is obliged to prosecute every individual in case there is valid evidence to substantiate the claim that they committed a criminal act, Vukcevic said.

 

Hripunov: Agreement is best way towards cooperation (Radio Serbia, by Ranka Pavlovic)

“We welcome all the efforts of the Serbian government to organize deliveries of agricultural and food products on the Russian market,” the Head of the Russian Commercial Office in Serbia Andrei Hripunov stated. Our countries, he added, have a free trade agreement, according to which the charges are minimal, which additionally benefit the interstate cooperation. In the first six months of this year, exports of Serbian agricultural products to the Russian market has increased by almost 70% and exceeded the value of 110 million dollars, said Hripunov. By the end of the year, I expect it to reach 300 million dollars, which is twice more than last year. Hripunov said that on 7 August, in response to sanctions imposed by the EU and the United States, his country adopted countermeasures restricting imports of certain products from a number of countries. Therefore, the Russian Federation is interested in buying quality products from Serbia, primarily agricultural products and foodstuffs. We are very pleased that Serbian companies are determined to come to the Russian market and to strengthen their position there in the long run, said Hripunov. He said that in the next two years, exports can be expected to increase by another 20 or 30%. We know that there are a large number of Serbian companies processing meat and milk, which been certified by appropriate Russian authorities.

Commenting on the sanctions imposed by the EU and the U.S., Hripunov pointed out that these measures always endanger economic activities. He reminded that for many years Serbia had been the target of economic sanctions that brought tremendous damage upon the country. Many companies, especially from the European Union, complain about big losses, which will be even bigger should the sanctions be prolonged. One must look for compromises, and I believe that agreement is the best way for future cooperation, said Hripunov.

Responding to the question whether Serbia might be left without Russian gas during the winter, Hripunov pointed out that it is not only the issue of energy security of Serbia, but also of Europe. Agreements were signed with the governments of all the countries through which the Southern Stream pipeline will pass, but certain parts of the agreement are for some reason placed under suspicion. It is really strange, because there are international treaties and conventions, said Hripunov, adding that previous agreements should be implemented. He expressed belief that the South Stream project will be realized. As for Ukraine’s potential decision to ban the transit of Russian gas the transit brings Kiev substantial amounts of money and therefore it is not in their interest to give up the advantages provided by this business. As for Serbia, we know that there is underground gas storage in Banatski Dvor, with 450 million cubic meters stored, which is two to three times less than the annual needs of the country.

In regard to President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Belgrade that has been announced for this fall, Hripunov said that he has no official information on the exact date. In any case, our presidents meet regularly and issues they discuss are related to the development of relations between the two countries. I believe that this meeting will also focus on trade and economic issues, Head of the Russian Commercial Office in Serbia Andrei Hripunov told Radio Serbia.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Final declaration of the Berlin Conference (Srna) 

The Western Balkans has made huge progress in establishing stability, building neighborly relations and modernizing the states, society and economy, reads the final declaration of the Conference of Western Balkan States, which took place Thursday in Berlin. All this has been significantly boosted by the EU’s enlargement policy and all Western Balkan countries are convinced that their future lies in the EU, reads the declaration. Sustainable economic growth and increase of long-term prosperity for the benefit of the people, as the declaration underlines, is only possible through open markets and foreign investments. Participants agree that the EU energy policy for the Western Balkan states gains importance especially in terms of safety, energy supply, energy efficiency and climate protection. “Regional cooperation is an important integral part of the Southeast Europe energy community,” reads the conference’s final document. The conference in Berlin gathered officials from B&H, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, self-proclaimed Kosovo, Albania, the European Commission, Austria, France and Germany. The German government explicitly stressed the EU perspective for the Western Balkan states. The final declaration states that Germany is aware of its responsibility for a peaceful, stable, democratic and state-building future of the Western Balkans and adds that it will keep supporting the region to that end. “All countries of the Western Balkans will have an opportunity to join the EU when they fulfill accession requirements,” reads the document. Participants have voiced a common wish to build regional economic cooperation and lay foundations for sustainable growth, and decided to hold such annual meetings until 2018 in order to make sure that the agenda agreed on Thursday is implemented and corroborated by further concrete projects. The declaration points out that the participating countries agree on the need to take further measures to fight organized crime and corruption, expressing the will to implement further reforms to increase legal security, preserve and enforce judicial independence and have more intensive cooperation. Participants have agreed that the conference should provide a boost over the next four years for making further concrete, joint progress in the reform process while solving outstanding bilateral and internal state issues, as well as in reconciliation within and among the region’s societies.

 

Izetbegovic meets with Erdogan in Ankara: Turkey will continue to assist B&H (Oslobodjenje)

The Chairman of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic met in Ankara with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister and newly elected president of Turkey. In a friendly discussion, they exchanged opinions on the current situation in B&H and Turkey and on relations of the two countries. Izetbegovic congratulated Erdogan on his election as president of Turkey, expressing the hope that during his presidential mandate Turkey will continue to realize political and economic successes like those achieved in the past decade and that returned Turkey to force and position on the global scene. Special attention was paid in the discussion to improving economic cooperation and accelerating the process of return and rebuilding in the areas that experienced natural disaster in B&H. It was considered that B&H-Turkish relations are exceptionally good and that cooperation in all fields is constantly intensifying. They expressed commitment to investing additional efforts to increase Turkish investment in B&H, especially in the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Erdogan said that Turkey pays special attention to Euro-Atlantic integrations and economic development in B&H, and that they will continue in every way to assist the B&H economy through development projects that the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and other Turkish government institutions finance, as well as the Turkish private sector. Izetbegovic thanked Erdogan for Turkey’s generous support to B&H on the political and economic plane, especially greeting the decision by the Turkish government to encourage private investment in B&H, and sought from Erdogan more intensive engagement in this field.

 

Berlin: Balkan countries say willing to solve bilateral issues, including FYROM – Greek name issue (Republika)

The final declaration from the Germany-EU-Balkans conference that was held in Berlin on Thursday asks that all outstanding bilateral issues need to be resolved as quickly as possible. This includes the name dispute between the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece. “The participating states agreed that this dispute must urgently be resolved by willingness to compromise on all sides, the declaration reads on the FYROM – Greek name issue. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at the joint press conference with European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso and the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, said that the conference was a symbolic way to show the progress that was achieved in Europe and in the Balkans after the First and the Second World Wars, and the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Merkel added that the conference is proof that the European Union and Germany want to contribute toward the future of the Balkans and the welfare of its people. The conference announced the beginning of a four year process to overcome political differences and to spur regional cooperation in the areas of infrastructure projects, energy and youth exchanges Barroso said that the EU goal is clear – to have all the countries of the Western Balkans become part of the EU, which will bring mutual political, economic and geo-political benefits. To achieve this goal, Barroso said that there needs to be regional investment in the infrastructure, and the Balkan countries can use the IPA funds that the EU makes available. “The EU will continue a leading role with the targeted financial aid, and the pre-accession aid instrument makes nearly 12 billion Euros available for the period of 2014 – 2020. These are not only good intentions, this is much more than good intentions. Some 20 percent of these funds will go to regional projects,” Barroso said, adding that the people of the Balkans region following the conference in Berlin can see there is real perspective for EU membership.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia Reinforces Border After Policeman's Killing (BIRN, by Gordana Andric, Nektar Zogjani, 28 August 2014)
Serbian Interior Minister says he is sending fresh police officers to the Kosovo border following the death of an officer who was shot near the border, allegedly by illegal loggers.
Stevan Sindjelic, of the special police unit known as the Gendarmerie, died Thursday in Belgrade, after being shot by unknown attackers, reportedly illegal loggers from Kosovo.
Following his death, Nebojsa Stefanovic, the Interior Minister, said Serbia would not tolerate “terrorist attacks on its territory and the police would respond with force to any attack.
“I have ordered a strengthening of the presence of police forces to protect the lives of police officers, the local population and vital interests of our country,” Stefanovic told Tanjug news agency.
Kosovo police told Balkan Insight that they have no information as yet on an increased presence of Serbian officers on the border.
“We do not have any information on that. We’re doing our job on the borders, there is no problem whatsoever,” they stated.
As the murder took place on Serbian territory, they also said they had no information on the exact circumstances of the crime.
Sindjelic was shot around 3am on Thursday, on the Serbian side of the border. He had been sent to the scene of a shooting that had occurred earlier that night.
A patrol from Kursumlija police station in southern Serbia had caught a number of people cutting down trees in the region of Orlovac village.
According to Serbian police, several of them opened fire at the police, and one ethnic Albanian was wounded in the exchange of fire.
Sindjelic came with his unit to secure the scene of shooting. According to the Serbian police, he was most probably shot by the same thieves who went back to the spot to gather the weapons and machinery they left behind. He died in hospital in Belgrade, where he was sent after the shooting.

Kosovo Protesters Stop Serbs From Attending Church (BIRN, by Nektar Zogjani, 29 August 2014)
Several hundred Kosovo Albanians protesting about missing persons from the conflict of the 1990s prevented a busload of Serbs from attending a church service in western Kosovo.
Around 400 Kosovo Albanians protesting about missing persons from the Kosovo war blocked roads in the village of Mushtisht, near Suhareka in western Kosovo, on Thursday, preventing Serbs from visiting a church.
Dalibor Jevtic, outgoing Returns and Communities Minister in the Kosovo government, condemned the blockade. Such acts "do not lead Kosovo society towards better cohabitation between the communities but rather represent a setback.
"If you want everyone in Kosovo to be equal, then we need to have equality between the communities and work in a completely different way," the minister told the Telegrafi news portal.
The Serbs, mainly refugees from the Kosovo conflict who came back from Serbia to celebrate a Serbian Orthodox Church holiday, were forced to go to a church in another village for the ceremonies.
The protesters said they wanted to highlight the issue of missing persons from the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s.
They held placards reading “Where are the missing persons of Mushtisht?” and “There is no room for criminals in Mushtisht”.
Police said around 150 Serbs came by bus to Mushtisht to attend a service in the Church of the Holy Virgin.
Blocked from reaching the church, “the police had to escort them to the village of Zoqishte, Suhareka municipality, to observe their religious ceremony,” police said.
“After that, they headed back to Serbia without any additional trouble,” the police said.
Police noted that they had only given permission for 57 pilgrims to come for the visit.
Kosovo's outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister, Petrit Selimi, said he undertood the anger felt by many locals about missing persons, some of whom he suspected were dumped in mass graves in Serbia.
"One of the billboards of the protesters says, 'Where are the missing [persons] of Mushtisht? Probably hidden in a mass grave in Serbia," Selimi said in a tweet exchange with Fr Sava Janjic, a leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.
Missing persons remains a live issue on both sides of the ethnic divide in Kosovo. Around 1,700 people are still listed as missing as a result of the conflict.
Mercenaries, Extremists Become Major Balkans Export (RFE/RL, by Dzenana Halimoci and Milos Teodorovic, 29 August 2014)
Kosovo police officers escort a man suspected of having fought with Islamist insurgents in Syria and Iraq as they arrive at a court in Pristina on August 12.
During the Cold War, Yugoslavia sent thousands of teachers, doctors, engineers, and other professionals to work in all corners of the globe.
Now some of the countries of the former Yugoslavia are becoming notorious for a different human export -- jihadists and mercenaries. And the numbers seem to be on the rise, despite measures in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia to stop the traffic.
On August 8, a Bosnian citizen named Emrah Fojnica, 23, blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Iraq during an attack by the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as ISIL.
Just days later, police in Kosovo arrested 40 suspected Islamist radicals during a raid of about 60 locations around the country. The men are accused of fighting with extremist militants in Syria and Iraq.
And officials in Serbia estimate that dozens of Serbs are fighting on both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"It is hard to say what their numbers are at this point," says Milorad Mijatovic, a parliament deputy from the Social Democratic Party. "They are not small. We are certainly talking about tens of people going into those war zones."
A report issued in April by the International Center for the Study of Radicalism (ICSR) in London estimated that about 6 percent of the foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria originated in the Balkans. Kosovo estimates about 200 of its citizens have gone to the Middle East, and 16 have been killed there.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic says there are "dozens of people [from Serbia] fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine and dozens fighting on the Ukrainian side in Ukraine." In "99 percent of cases," Vucic says, the Serbians are mercenaries fighting for money.
Bosnia has already passed a law criminalizing mercenary activity. A similar bill in Kosovo has cleared its first reading in parliament. And Serbian lawmakers have proposed such legislation. However, there are serious concerns that such measures might not be effective.
Steven Vukojevic represents a Serbian organization called the Chetnik Movement, which recruits Serbian volunteers to fight for the separatists in Ukraine. Asked whether a law banning mercenaries would be effective, he says that "the Chetnik Movement has men in Russia who live and work there, so they can also go [to Ukraine] through Russia. There is no need for them to go directly from Serbia."
In Bosnia, the situation is more alarming. Most of the fighters going to Syria and Iraq are under the influence of Wahhabi extremists. There is a secretive Wahhabi community in the northern village of Gornja Maoca that has been connected to terrorism in the past.
Official Response
Mehmed Bradaric is a deputy in the Bosnian parliament who has had experience coping with Islamic extremism when he was mayor of the northern city of Maglaj and Wahhabites took control of the nearby village of Bocinja.
"While they were living there, they set up their own rules," Bradaric says. "For us it was very difficult to live in Maglaj. We were deprived of all normal events, such as celebrating New Year's. People either did not celebrate, or did it in fear."
Such experiences make Almir Dzuvo, director of the Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA), question the commitment of the authorities to combatting Islamist extremism. "If you knew what I know about the involvement of government structures in this, from the lowest levels to criminal organizations, you would be as concerned as I am," he says.
Emrah Fojnica, the Bosnian who blew himself up in Iraq last week, was well known to the authorities. He was tried for providing one of the weapons used by Mevlid Jasarevic when he fired at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in October 2011. Fojnica and Jasarevic both lived at the Wahhabi community in Donja Maoca.
Fojnica was acquitted and promised not to return to Donja Maoca. Instead, he became a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Sociologists in both countries, however, see deeper causes behind the surge in "war tourism." "We are in the paradoxical situation in which it makes more sense for a 19- or 20-year-old man to go to war in a distant country...that he can't even find on a map than to stay in Bosnia and search for some meaning here," says Vlado Azinovic, a professor of political science in Sarajevo who was an expert witness at the Jasarevic trial.
Vojislav Curcic, a psychiatric specialist in Belgrade, says much the same thing. "Whenever a society is in crisis -- and ours is -- you have fertile ground for extremism," he says. "There are many discontented citizens who think that extremist positions and actions will make them feel better. The whole social climate encourages the development of extremism."
The Deutsche Welle news agency recently spoke with a group of Serbian mercenaries from the Chetnik movement who are fighting in Ukraine. The group's leader, Bratislav Zivkovic, says he thinks the fighting there will end soon and he is already making plans to return to Serbia.
And that has experts in the Balkans worried.
"When [the mercenaries] return, a group of people that can represent a real threat -- not just for Serbia, but for the whole region -- is being formed," warns Serbian military analyst Bojan Dimitrijevic.

Conference on Western Balkans focuses on EU membership preparations (New Europe/Xinhua, 29 August 2014)
Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic said on Thursday the conference on Western Balkans in Berlin focused on the political and economic preparations of European Union aspirants.
 She said the foreign ministers from the West Balkan countries and their counterparts of Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia discussed the political preparation of the countries in the region for EU membership and economic reforms, according to Croatian News Agency Hina.
The issues such as the fight against corruption, the judiciary and reforms, were involved, she said.
Pusic said Croatia's EU accession did not mean that it stopped being part of the region, adding the neighborhood is absolutely a matter of its stability and Croatia has policies of cooperating and encouraging the neighboring countries in the implementation of reforms.
The conference was attended by heads of state, foreign ministers and business delegations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as representatives from four EU members -- Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.  
Germany shows interest in investing in Balkan region: Croatian FM  
Germany has shown interest in the Balkan region again by organizing a Western Balkan conference in Berlin, Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic said on Thursday.
She said after a long time, Germany has shown a very active interest in the region again. It is important and good, according to Croatian News Agency Hina.
On the same day, German Economic Affairs and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who hosted a meeting of economy and finance ministers, said German businessmen were interested in investing in Western Balkan countries and a poll showed that 83 percent of German investors who did business in the region will do it again.
The region's economic priorities must be to encourage exports and investments, he said.
 European Commission Vice President and Economy and Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger stressed the importance of investing in energy, especially in the strengthening of the energy infrastructure between EU and Western Balkans countries, as well as within the region.
Balkan Leaders in Berlin Pledge to Work Together (BIRN, by Florian Franze, 28 August 2014)
Balkan economy and finance ministers meeting in Berlin have agreed that their countries must jointly resolve economic issues that trouble the region.
Vladimir Pesevski, Macedonia's deputy prime minister for economic affairs , said countries in the region must start working together and rely on their own strength to resolve outstanding economic issues, increase employment and trade and improve the overall business climate.
“We should stop relying on EU advisers for everything and start shifting to local level. We should rely on regional cooperation and on ourselves,” Pesevski told a meeting of Balkan leaders in Berlin hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Dusan Vujovic, Serbian finance and economy minister, agreed that the countries of the region should start working together on major infrastructural projects, such as highways and railways.
“We need to finish the connections that we start building 60 years ago,” Vujovic said.
Goran Svilanovic, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, RCC, said the only way for Balkan countries to raise funding to major infrastructure projects was to work closely together.
“Balkan countries cannot finance larger projects on their own and the only way for them to get funding is to work on them together,” Svilanovic said, adding that regional cooperation was needed to boost trade and employment generally.
“The countries in the region must enable the fast flow of goods and services,” Svilanovic added.
Regional ministers pointed to the need for fresh outside investment, and for German investors to come to the region.
“We need a game changer... and the game changer is foreign investment,” Arben Ahmetaj, Albania's Economy Minister, said, adding that Balkan countries cannot develop by running up new debts and taking out new loans.
The Balkan leaders were in Berlin for a conference on the economic prospects and European perspectives of the Western Balkan under German patronage.
The conference brought to the same table top-ranking politicians from Germany, the EU and the Balkans.
The summit has consisted of three parts. While regional economy ministers met Sigmar Gabriel, German Economy Minister, and Günther Oettinger, the European Commission Vice President, foreign ministers met Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Foreign Minister, together with Stefan Fule, the European Enlargement Commissioner.
Merkel and José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, held a meeting with the heads of state of Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia on structural reforms, rule of law and the fight against corruption.
The idea is for the Balkan conference is to become regular annual event, with next one due to be held in 2015 in Austria.
NATO Summit 2014: U.S. Should Support Macedonia (The Heritage Foundation, by Luke Coffey, 28 August 2014)
On June 25, outgoing NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that there would be no enlargement at the next NATO summit in Wales in September 2014. This announcement was a huge disappointment for the Republic of Macedonia, which has met all criteria to join the alliance but continuously has its application vetoed by Greece over a name dispute.
Macedonia would be a welcome addition to the NATO alliance, and its membership would contribute to regional stability in southeastern Europe. The U.S. should continue to back Macedonia’s goal of joining the alliance.
Macedonia’s Long Road to Independence
The Republic of Macedonia is a small but geopolitically important Balkan nation. The region of modern-day Macedonia has been under the control of several regional empires throughout history. In antiquity, the kingdoms of Paeonia and then Macedon ruled the area. Later, numerous different empires and kingdoms ruled over this region, including the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires.
As the Ottoman Empire was slowly collapsing in the late 19th century, there was a rise in Macedonian nationalism seeking autonomy for an independent Macedonian state. Although this movement was successful for only a brief 12 days before the Ottomans took control again, it planted the seed for eventual independence. In the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, this region was divided through the Treaty of Bucharest among Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia.
In 1944, Macedonia became one of the six socialist republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1990, after Yugoslavia changed from a socialist state to a parliamentary democracy, the word socialist was dropped from Macedonia’s name. With the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, Macedonia became an independent state and kept the name—Republic of Macedonia—as its new constitutional name. Greece quickly protested on the grounds that the name Macedonia, which is the same as that of Greece’s northern province, implied regional territorial claims by the new nation. This claim is unfair for three reasons:
1. Macedonia is the size of Vermont and has a population of only 2 million. Greece has a population of 11 million and is five times larger. Macedonia does not pose a military threat, either practically or rhetorically, to any of its neighbors—especially Greece.
2. Although there is nothing indicating that in the 21st century any of Macedonia’s neighbors have territorial designs on Macedonia, historically regional powers sought to control Macedonia, not the other way around. This was the primary driver of the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars, for example.
3. To alleviate Greece’s concerns, a specific provision has been placed in Macedonia’s constitution stating: “The Republic of Macedonia has no territorial pretensions towards any neighboring state.”
Believe It or Not, It’s All About a Name
In 1993, Macedonia joined the United Nations under the provisional name “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.” In 1995, Macedonia and Greece agreed to a U.N.-brokered interim accord in which Athens agreed not to block Macedonia’s integration into international organizations such as NATO so long as it called itself “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” until both sides agreed on a mutually acceptable name.
Macedonia joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace in 1995 and received a Membership Action Plan in 1999. Upon completing its Membership Action Plan in 2008, Macedonia anticipated an invitation to join the alliance at the NATO summit in Bucharest. Yet Greece unilaterally vetoed Macedonia’s accession over the name issue. In December 2011, the International Court of Justice ruled that Greece’s veto was in blatant violation of the 1995 interim accord.
Macedonia has little leverage in urging Greece to come to the bargaining table. Greece is already a NATO member, and Athens’s internal political dynamics are likely to delay the negotiation process.
Macedonia: A Solid U.S. Ally
Despite the small size of Macedonia’s military (approximately 7,300 service members as part of a Joint Operational Command), the nation has already contributed respectably to the NATO alliance. Macedonia has participated in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan since 2002, rotating a total of 3,200 troops to Afghanistan during this period. Furthermore, Macedonia has indicated its willingness to participate in the post-2014 follow-on mission to train and assist Afghan forces after ISAF’s combat mission ends.
Macedonia sends forces to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the EU’s Operation Althea. Since 1999, it has allowed NATO forces deploying to Kosovo to transit its territory. Further afield, Macedonia participates in the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, and between 2003 and 2008 it deployed forces in support of U.S.-led operations in Iraq, including a special operations unit. These contributions demonstrate a willingness by Macedonia to contribute to global security.
It is important for the U.S. and NATO to ensure that NATO enlargement takes place for those countries that meet the high standards. NATO’s “open-door policy” is critical to mobilizing Europe and its allies around collective transatlantic defense. The open-door policy also promotes democracy, stability, and security in the North Atlantic region by enticing countries to become a part of the alliance through positive democratic and military reforms. If aspiring NATO members see the door closed for Macedonia, it could discourage them from undertaking the desired democratic reforms to someday join the alliance themselves.
Backing Macedonia Is the Right Thing
The U.S. should make sure that the open-door policy is not closed. Macedonia met all criteria to join NATO in 2008. The only thing preventing Macedonia from joining the alliance—and therefore preventing the Wales summit from being an enlargement summit—is Greece’s veto. Keeping the door closed to Macedonia does not benefit Europe’s security and it weakens NATO’s open-door policy as a tool for reform, modernization, and democratization.
To send the right messages, the U.S. should:
• Show support for Macedonia. The U.S. should use the NATO summit to show its appreciation for Macedonia’s contributions to ISAF and thank the Macedonian people for their patience while they wait to join the alliance six years after meeting all the criteria.
• Privately pressure Greece. The U.S. should pressure Greece behind the scenes to allow Macedonia to join NATO under the terms of the 1995 interim accord.
• Ensure that NATO is clear on Macedonia’s future membership. The summit declaration should make it clear that it is the official position of NATO that Macedonia’s future is in the alliance.
• Continue working with the Macedonian armed forces. As the NATO-led combat mission in Afghanistan comes to an end, the U.S. should ensure that it continues to train with and prepare the Macedonian military for future challenges.
NATO’s Open-Door Policy Jeopardized
Enlargement of the alliance has greatly contributed to the security of all the member states and regional stability. The U.S. should work to ensure that NATO’s open-door policy remains in force and that qualified nations are allowed a timely accession to the alliance.
Greece’s pertinacious opposition over the name issue, coupled with the illegality of its position under international law, has jeopardized NATO’s open-door policy. Greece should work with Macedonia to seek reconciliation, and the U.S. should play a leading role.