LOCAL PRESS

 

Joksimovic: EU cannot consider its future without Western Balkans (RTS)

Serbia and other countries in the region have made major progress along their paths to the EU which cannot even consider its future without the Western Balkans, it was said at a conference titled “Serbia and the EU Integration of the Western Balkans” on Friday. In her address to participants of the conference, Serbian Minister in charge of EU integration Jadranka Joksimovic said that each and everyone in the government are ready to invest their personal and political credibility for the sake of the region's stability and better future. “I am sure this policy got an earned recognition in the EU, in which Serbia is perceived as one of the most important factors for stability in the Western Balkans. It is very important to improve relations in the region and be sincere in these efforts and activities,” Joksimovic said. Serbia will continue to resolve all issues in good faith, she said, voicing her expectation that the Paris conference would send good messages and yield concrete results.

 

Djuric: Aim of March pogrom was to expel all Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug)

A commemorative ceremony was held in Gracanica on Thursday to mark 12 years since the March pogrom, and Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said the aim of the pogrom had been to expel the very last Serb from Kosovo. That was mass and orchestrated violence that could not possibly take place without thorough preparations, Djuric said. He underlined that the March pogrom should have been the last phase in the scheme whose aim had been an absolute ethnic cleansing and expulsion of all Serbs. This was prevented with the overdue reaction of international forces, but even more so with the heroic resolve of our people to remain in these areas, Djuric said, urging Serbs to stay proud and courageous. Djuric noted that Pristina had been home to 50,000 Serbs, and Kosovo Polje to over 20,000 Serbs and all those people - 247,000 in total had been forced to flee the province because of their nationality.

 

Association of Families seek truth, justice for Serb victims (Tanjug)

The Association of Families of Persons Kidnapped and Murdered in Kosovo and Metohija Thursday commemorated the pogrom of March 17, 2004, stressing that they wanted truth and justice for the Serb victims. Dragan Palibrk, lawyer at the association, said that he had for years been asking the question if anyone who had inflicted injustice upon people whose images were on the banners of the Association would ever be tried for their crimes. I am aware that the atrocities committed against these individuals are not being tried today and that nobody is even close to being convicted, Palibrk said, stressing that a crime was a crime regardless of the nationality of the one who had committed it and that pain was pain and a victim was a victim regardless of their nationality. Speaking to reporters gathered in front of the “Serbian wailing wall”, where pictures of over 2,500 kidnapped and killed civilians, soldiers and police officers were put up last year, President of the Association Simo Spasic said that only the Serbs had not been given the right to know the truth and justice had not been done to the Serb victims. Stressing that The Hague tribunal was a “proven unjust institution”, Spasic said that the families were seeking justice and would not allow anyone to prevent them, by blackmail and money, from seeking it. We seek justice and want to say to the Special Court set up to try crimes committed by the KLA against Serbs that the families want justice to be done. If this court does not prosecute and convict KLA commanders, it means there is no justice in the world and no justice for the Serb families, said Spasic.

 

“ISIS is coming” graffiti on Serbian Orthodox church wall in Pristina (Tanjug/RTK2)

Graffiti with the message “ISIS is coming” has been daubed on the wall around the Serbian Orthodox church of St Nicholas in Pristina. It was first spotted last weekend by Italian KFOR soldiers who patrol around the church twice a week, the RTK2 has reported. Parish priest Darko Marinkovic noted that he had only been notified of the incident a few days ago and that it has been reported to the Kosovo police. “Worst of all, it is an invitation to a terrorist organisation that nearly half of the world is fighting at this time,” Marinkovic told the RTK2. The graffiti appeared just days before Thursday’s 12th anniversary of the March 17, 2004 pogrom against Kosovo Serbs, when the Pristina church was torched, along with many others.

 

Ljajic: Process against Seselj started and ends with precedent (RTS)

The Chairperson of the National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY Rasim Ljajic has told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that Seselj was literally thrown out of the ICTY and that this court is now trying to resolve this problem in any way, so not to deal with it any longer. He points out that it cannot punish Serbia because the obligations towards the ICTY have been fulfilled. Ljajic said that the process against Seselj before the ICTY was ending in the same way it had started – with precedents. “The decision that Seselj doesn’t have to attend the reading of the verdict on 31 March is nothing new as far as the ICTY is concerned,” says Ljajic. He added that the Serbian government never said it would not extradite Seselj. “This problem did not originate in Serbia because the government was not cooperating with the court, instead it arose from their own mistakes, but they certainly will not say it publicly. No one can be punishing Serbia, because we fulfilled all our obligations, and we even said in a confidential brief what this was about. Of course, the Hague, having no other way out, made such a decision,” said Ljajic. He added the government has done everything to be fair and responsible. “We acted this way from beginning to end,” said Ljajic. In regard to the comments coming from Croatia, he said he would be able to understand if they came from Germany or Sweden - but not from Croatia. “It sounds strange because in that country signs written in Cyrillic are demolished, and if they have some accusations they should address the ICTY. The statement by Petrov that Serbia was required to provide guarantees that Seselj would return to the ICTY shows he is not well informed. Nobody asked for guarantees. I expect Croatia to now condition Serbia’s EU path,” he said. Ljajic also noted that the ICTY would finish its work in 2017, adding that Serbia fulfilled its obligations once it extradited the last accused person. He also stated that without trials for war crimes committed by the KLA there can be no reconciliation in the region. “We’ll see if the special court has really been formed to conduct trials the way it should, or if it’s just an excuse to be doing something and accomplishing nothing,” Ljajic concluded.

 

Seselj to lose MP seat if convicted by ICTY (Novosti)

The leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj will not be able to count on an MP mandate in the Serbian parliament if he gets convicted by the ICTY to a sentence over six months of imprisonment, Novosti writes. The daily reminds that Article 88 of the Law on the Election of MPs proscribes an end of a term to an MP should he or she happen to be lawfully convicted to a minimum of six months of imprisonment without a possibility of parole.

 

Foreigners to monitor elections through OSCE (Novosti)

Most of the foreign states will not have their special missions at the upcoming early parliamentary elections, but their representatives will monitor the voting in Serbia by participating in the OSCE mission. The EU Delegation to Serbia says they still haven’t sent a request for receiving an observing role at the elections. The Germany Embassy will not have their own mission as well, but their representatives will be part of the OSCE team. The Russian Embassy says there are ready to take part in monitoring the electoral process if the Serbian authorities wish so. The Agency for fight against corruption has already engaged 134 observers who will be deployed in 23 towns. Around 2,000 envoys of the Center for Free and Democratic Elections (CeSID) will also monitor the elections, just as they did in the past.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Not possible that only former RS President Radovan Karadzic is guilty (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik told Srna that it is not possible that only former RS President Radovan Karadzic is guilty of everything he has been charged with, if he is guilty at all, and that the issue of accountability of Alija Izetbegovic, Franjo Tudjman and others has not been raised at all. The Deputy Speaker of the RS Parliament, Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic, expressed fear that the ruling to former RS President Radovan Karadzic, which will be pronounced on March 24, could initiate a number of pressures on the RS institutions having in mind that this is about the ruling to the first RS president.

 

RS coalition talks (Srna)

Leaders of the Banja Luka city boards of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), Predrag Vulin, PDP, Zoran Talic, and People’s Democratic Movement (NDP), Dragan Talic have pledged to work together in the campaign for the upcoming elections, where they will have a joint candidate for Banja Luka mayor. Meanwhile, Mico Micic, chairman of the SDS City Board in Bijeljina, announced on Thursday that five prominent members of the Democratic People’s Alliance (DNS) in the city will support his party and himself as mayoral candidate in the local election in October. On the other side, the President of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), Milorad Dodik, said that the ruling coalition in the RS is functioning flawlessly and announced that all elements of a coalition agreement prior to the local elections will be completed within 30 days and that the names of the joint candidates for mayors and heads of municipalities will be made public by the end the month. The DNS president Marko Pavic said that the coalition partners are united in efforts to preserve the Dayton RS and in a position that European integration is acceptable only with the full subjectivity of RS.

 

Izetbegovic takes chairmanship of B&H Presidency (Nezavisne)

On 17 March, the Bosniak member of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic assumed the rotating chairmanship  from  Croat  Dragan  Covic. Izetbegovic will be presiding over the next eight months, when Serb member Mladen Ivanic will take over. Izetbegovic told reporters that his prime priority would be the realization of a Master plan for B&H EU integration, which entailed further implementation of reforms relating to the rule of law, market economy and economic recovery measures.

 

Coordination mechanism still an issue – analysis (Patria)

It was 10 February when Denis Zvizdic, President of B&H Council of Ministers proudly announced that the document of Coordination mechanism was agreed upon and unanimously adopted at the Council of Ministers meeting, that it was published in the Official Gazette of B&H and that our country is strongly and surely making its way to EU. At that occasion, he had a rift with a Patria journalist because he was either unable or he did not want to answer very concrete questions: ‘why did he deceive delegates of Home of Representatives of Presidential Assembly of B&H, the biggest legislation body of B&H when he concealed that Coordination Mechanism had been adopted on 26 January; and how is the coordination problem resolved if two or three cantons fail to agree with the majority in the committee’. “Well, I don’t seem to mind that the document is considered “secret”, it seems to me that you mind that it is mysterious. It is not mysterious at all and you can insist upon it all you want, but you have to explain it to me how can a document be mysterious if published in Official Gazette,” said Zvizdic. And, we didn’t have to wait long for the truth to surface. Even on 16 March, it was clear that the agreed and adopted coordination mechanism had to go back to the drawing table, and then back to the Council of Ministers for adoption. Yet, deceit continued so Zvizdic, refusing to admit the guilt, repeated over and over again that they are making progress with adoption. In reality, the high level meeting had only one simple conclusion – “we have agreed to agree” – the phrase Milorad Dodik often used during the police reform process which went on for several years. Even Prime Minister Fadil Novalic, known for his “sharp” statements, wanted to calm the public, so he decided to shine again in front of media. “Please understand this as an intermezzo between two key meetings. This is the first meeting where we defined technical and essential problems. The technical problems we will solve technically, and the essential one we will resolve by appointing a group to discuss them on Monday and bring them back for final adoption. There are no overly big differences in opinions and I believe we are making progress on this” said Novalic. The Prime Minister did not say with precision what is intermezzo in this case – the statements or the entire deceit that the governing structure stands behind. Far more open and precise in Novalic's intermezzo was Zeljka Cvijanovic, the Prime Minister of RS, who said that more complex things were left for Monday and that she is hopeful that agreement on coordination mechanism will be achieved. At the session with journalists, the confusion reached the highest point so journalists asked Zvizdic to explain how come that they’re discussing already agreed, adopted and published document?! However, Zvizdic dodged the question and refused to admit that he deceived the public on 10 February.

 

US Senator Wicker: My biggest concern is systemic corruption in B&H (Dnevni avaz)

US Senator Roger Wicker, co-president of the Influential US Helsinki Commission, in early February caused many reactions when he pointed on extreme corruption among high ranked politicians in B&H in a letter to US Secretary John Kerry. He requested a punishment for politicians like that and proposed prohibition of entry into the US and the freezing of assets to them, and to those who support them.

Avaz: In a recent letter written to secretary of State John Kerry, you emphasized a problem of worsening corruption in B&H, including corruption in vital regulatory institutions and among high-level political officials. Do you have a bit more detailed information on corruption in B&H?   Do you personally have any specific knowledge about corrupt activities of some B&H politicians and governmental institutions? If so, can you name some of them?

Wicker: I will leave it to the prosecutors to name individuals based on evidence, the courts to make judgments based on that evidence, and the media to report on the findings of their investigations.  The focus of my concern was not only on high-profile cases but also on corruption as a well-known, pervasive, and systemic problem in B&H today.  Dealing with corrupt officials is frustrating to citizens trying to organize their lives and find opportunities for the future.  It is frustrating to international donors, including the United States, to see how corruption makes assistance less effective than it otherwise might be.

Avaz: Speaking of corruption, which is, according to many, the biggest issue in the whole country of B&H, what are the ways to exterminate it for good? Is it achievable in nowadays political situation without specific help of international organizations and institutions in B&H?

Wicker: International organizations and institutions, including the OSCE, can help.  So can our bilateral efforts through the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.  However, it is mostly a question of political willpower within B&H to overcome corrupt practices and ensure respect for the rule of law.  B&H citizens need to do more to generate this political willpower, by calling for accountability and transparency in all levels of government.

Avaz: Did you get the response letter from Mr. Obama administration? If so, could you please tell us more about its content?

Wicker: “The Administration has responded and shares my concerns about the corruption in B&H.  Support for the protection of whistleblowers as well as the strengthening of judicial institutions across the board are among the initiatives on which the U.S. government is concentrating its efforts.  It is clear to me that worsening corruption in the country will only inhibit international investment.  The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo is active in this regard and has my support and encouragement.” 

 Avaz: The Senate has supported your initiative for creating a $50 million fund for small and medium investments in our region. What do you expect as a result of it?  What are the next steps you are going to take when it comes to improving political and economic situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Wicker: On November 19, 2015, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and I introduced a piece of legislation known as the Bosnia and Herzegovina-American Enterprise Act. This act would authorize the President to designate a private, nonprofit organization as the B&H-American Enterprise Fund.  This fund would promote the private sector, job creation, and the formation of a middle class in B&H.  This is an important next step, and by calling for action to address current corruption in B&H, I hope to make it a successful one.

Avaz: How would you rate the condition in B&H since the Dayton agreement? How big progress did B&H make and what are the main problems that are standing in the way of its faster progress towards Euro Atlantic integrations?   Do you think that the positive results of Clinton's administration in B&H, ending of war and reaching Dayton Peace Agreement began to lose its significance? Should American administration renew their interest in B&H and the western Balkan region and in what way?

Wicker: Progress has been made since Dayton, especially from 1995 to 2005.  The transition, however, is not complete.  If anything, it has stalled over the last decade. The Dayton Agreement successfully restored peace and allowed the country to recover. Ethnicity pervades Bosnian politics, and collective privileges for certain groups – Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats – often trump the individual human rights of the citizen, no matter his or her ethnicity.  There are too many layers of government for a country of Bosnia’s size to function well as a true 21st-century democracy.  Current leaders may only see the downside of reform, which would involve losing their power and influence.  Until leaders become more accountable to their citizens and to the law, it is difficult to see a meaningful transition resuming.   Beyond the issue of combating corruption, institutional reforms could bolster the country’s chances for Euro-Atlantic and European integration.  Like combating corruption, this will take political willpower.

Avaz: Fight against terrorism in the world is one of the priorities for the USA. What do you think about the cooperation with B&H government with this problem?

Wicker: Many people are unaware that one of America’s first counterterrorism missions after 9/11 took place in B&H. Like many countries, B&H is vulnerable to infiltration by radical elements that could spawn terrorist activity.  Corruption and the legacy of war contribute to that vulnerability.  But it is clear that B&H authorities generally recognize the problem and have taken actions to counter it. Cooperation between the United States and B&H on this issue has been good, and I hope that will continue.

 

Djukanovic: Montenegro in NATO by mid-2017 (SDM)

Montenegro can realistically expect to become a member of NATO by mid-2017, said Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic. “After Montenegro received NATO invitation, a new phase has begun – negotiations on joining the Alliance, which are being conducted successfully. I expect that that they will be completed in a month or month and a half. After that, the procedure of ratification of Montenegro’s membership in the parliaments of NATO member states will begin. According to other countries’ experience, we can realistically expect Montenegro to become a full member of NATO by mid-2017”, he said in the interview with the Russian TV Dozd, portal RTCG carried. He said that the accession of Montenegro to the EU and NATO would mean a guarantee for the security of Montenegro and other Western Balkan countries. Asked whether he fears that his desire for the country to be stable may disrupt relations with Russia, Djukanovic said that Montenegro respected the more than three hundred years long history of relations with Russia, but “had the right and was able to choose its way into the future on its own”.He said that Montenegro sees its future both in the EU and NATO and “is not directed against anyone, including the Russian partners.Entering the EU and NATO is in our interests, but it is not caused by the desire to cause damage in any way. We are sorry for the way Russia perceives our membership in NATO. We hope that this is a temporary attitude and that it does not bear risk of permanent disruption of relations between Montenegro and Russia”, he said.Djukanovic added that the current attitude of Russia towards Montenegrin membership in NATO was primarily a consequence of the deterioration of relations between Russia and the West, Russia and the United States, Russia and the EU.“Montenegro has ended up in the line of fire between Russia and the West. We do not think that Russia is against Montenegro's membership in NATO because of the importance of Montenegro or the threat of war. No. We believe that Russia is against Montenegro's membership in NATO because of the worsening of the relations with the EU and NATO,” said the PM. Commenting on earlier statements that Russia had been behind protests in Montenegro, Djukanovic said that Montenegro's opposition had “unequivocal support by Russian policy”. “Practically all the leaders of these street protests have recently been more often in Russia than in Montenegro. High-ranking officials have received them, starting with the leadership of the Duma to key leaders of Russian political parties. From the meetings with Russian officials, they send signals to Montenegro people that Russia supports their intention to prevent the accession of Montenegro to NATO,” said Djukanovic.He said added that there had also been differences in policy between the two countries in the past, but that “it was not good if Russia contacts today only with those who are opponents of the Montenegrin state”. He added that the opposition in Montenegro was trying to present itself as pro-Russian, but that it was “dishonest and mendacious”.Asked whether Montenegro expects the so-called “little green men”, i.e. members of the Russian Special Forces who were involved in the operation of annexing Crimea to Russia, Djukanovic said he “sincerely hoped that it would not happen”.He reminded that Russia had voted in the UN Security Council for introducing “very rigorous” sanctions against The Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).“If it were not so, those sanctions could not have been applied. We understood it back then. So there were reasons why Russia had to be with the members of the Security Council in the implementation of the policy of restrictive measures against one of the very poor Balkan countries such as FRY,” Djukanovic said.

 

Macedonian State Election Commission needs additional time to complete cross examinations (MIA)

The State Election Commission (SEC) has not adopted the report on Wednesday that was expected to show the results of the cross checkups on dubious voters featuring the electoral roll. After the initial review of the report on the cross examinations of the databases provided by ten state institutions on the concrete number of suspicious voters included in the voters' registry, the SEC has decided to carry out additional controls on some of the questions included in the checkups performed so far. According to SEC officials, immediately after the control tests are completed, the authority will schedule a session to adopt the report on the cross examinations.

 

Macedonian Constitutional Court: Law still limits president's pardon authority (MIA)

The constitutional Court annulled the amendments to the Law on pardon on Wednesday. So from now on the President will be able to pardon persons convicted for all types of crimes. The initiative for implementing a pardon procedure can be initiated by the convicted person or by the Justice Ministry. In reaching the decision, the President consults with a special Pardon Commission that takes into consideration several criteria.With a majority of votes, the Constitutional Court made a decision Wednesday to revoke the 2009 Law amending the Law on Pardon. Up till now, he was not able to pardon persons convicted of electoral fraud, pedophilia, drug trafficking, persons who have perpetrated criminal acts violating human health, humanity and international law. As an argument for reaching the decision, the Court stated at a briefing that the lawmakers cannot interfere with the President's authority to pardon. The decision of the Constitutional Court has sparked a great interest. Just a day before the decision was reached, massive protests were held before its building. On Tuesday, two opposing groups gathered in front of the Court's building. One group, supported by the oppositional SDSM party, protested against the decision, while the other, supported by Stevce Jakimovski's GROM party, came out in support of the Court.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

OSCE Likely to Help Kosovo Serbs Vote in Serbian Poll (BIRN, by Perparim Isufi, Filip Avramovic, 18 March 2016)

The exact modalities of voting in the Serbian general elections in Kosovo have yet to be clarified but the OSCE Mission in Kosovo is set to facilitate the process once again.

The OSCE mission in Kosovo said it is prepared to facilitate the process of enabling ethnic Serbs in Kosovo to vote in the Serbian general elections as soon as Belgrade and Pristina agree on the details. “There is an expectation for the OSCE to carry out a process in Kosovo that would enable eligible voters to exercise their right in the context of Serbian parliamentary elections of 24 April,” OSCE Pristina spokesperson Edita Bucaj told BIRN. “Consultations with the parties will clarify all outstanding issues,” Bucaj added. In 2012 and 2014, the OSCE was tasked with collecting and distributing election material to polling stations and giving it to the Serbian authorities once the polls closed. The OSCE's role was a compromise solution after the Kosovo government refused to allow the Serbian Election Commission to organize elections in the country on the grounds that it violated the country's sovereignty. The OSCE then jumped in and did the job. This time, both Serbia and Kosovo seem prepared to repeat the process that was defined two years ago. "Elections will be held the same way as in 2014", a spokesman for Serbia’s Government Office for Kosovo, Ivan Jaksic, told BIRN, adding that voting would be organized with the help of OSCE. "That was agreed in Brussels. The number of voting places is the only thing that needs to be agreed," Jaksic said. “We have made no decision yet because consultations will be held in coming weeks, but we will act based on international practices,” a Kosovo government Spokesperson, Arban Abrashi, told BIRN. Most ethnic Serbs in Kosovo are concentrated in the north of the country where they make up local majorities in several municipalities. More scattered communities exist in the south. Serbia still claims a theoretical right to organise elections in Kosovo as it does not recognise the independence of the former province, proclaimed in 2008.

 

Drive for EU membership could help pull a fractured Bosnia together (dailytimes, 17 March 2016)

TUZLA: Bosnian membership in the European Union might not seem a realistic, or even desirable, goal, but boosters of the idea say working towards joining may be the only way the country can pull itself together 20 years after its devastating war. An ethnically divided nation beset by corruption and economic difficulties, Bosnia formally applied to the 28-nation bloc in February and was told it must progress with economic and social reforms before it can be considered. Businesses like Bingo shops, set up by Tuzla’s Senad Dzambic in the midst of Bosnia’s 1992-95 conflict and now the country’s largest supermarket chain, are already anticipating the opportunities and challenges to come. “We have strategically turned towards domestic production with local partners to be able to produce basic food staples and be competitive when the EU products flood the market here,” Dzambic told Reuters. Some might wonder why Bosnia and other countries even bother given the challenges the EU faces in the migrant crisis, a looming British referendum on leaving the bloc and years of economic emergencies in the euro zone. But without the prospect of membership Bosnia risks being left behind by its neighbours who also emerged from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and who either already belong to the bloc or are far further down the road to membership. That, analysts say, leaves a weak link on the edge of Europe open to continued smuggling of arms and people and ripe for exploitation by various extremist forces, ranging from radical Islamists among otherwise moderate Bosnian Muslims to ultra-nationalist Orthodox Serbs. “There is no alternative to the EU,” said Igor Gavran, an expert on the Bosnian economy currently at Queen Mary University of London. “Bosnia is so dysfunctional that even this dysfunctional EU, as it seems to be at the moment, is still a role model for Bosnia.” Of the former Yugoslav countries, Slovenia and Croatia are EU members and Serbia and Montenegro have begun membership negotiations. Macedonia’s progress towards EU membership is blocked by a dispute with Greece over the country’s name. The hope is that the carrot of eventual EU membership, with its promise of funds for development, access to a single market of 500 million people and freedom to work in other countries, will galvanise Bosnia’s leadership to set aside differences to work together on reforms. The strategy worked in Croatia, where mainstream political leaders, backed by the majority of Croats, set membership in the EU as their primary goal after their war to gain independence and worked to meet the bloc’s terms, including the arrest of war crimes suspects.

The EU path was cleared for Serbia after the country arrested key culprits from the Bosnian war and struck a series of accords with its former province of Kosovo, with which it waged a war in 1999. Accession talks opened last December. But while both Croatia and Serbia showed the political will to break with their wartime pasts, such determination is still largely missing in Bosnia where political elites continue to obstruct reconciliation efforts for their own political and personal gain, analysts say. The Dayton agreement that ended Bosnia’s war moreover mandated an unwieldy political system that has encouraged political gridlock: division of the country into a Serb Republic and a Bosniak-Croat Federation with a weak central government. The result has been wide disagreement on the country’s future direction among its Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks. The Bosnian Serb leadership favours closer ties with Russia and has threatened the secession of their autonomous republic, and questions Bosnia’s EU bid. Many ordinary Bosnians are also sceptical. “We are far away from the EU. This is not going to happen because there is too much crime in this country,” Vujadin Djuric, a private businessman in his 60s, told Reuters as he shopped at a mall in Tuzla. He also expressed a commonly held wariness of Europe’s motives: “Europe was behind the whole mess that has happened here and now they pretend to be our saviours.” The process of accession to the EU is long, complicated and fraught: years can go by before a country is accepted as a candidate depending on the progress of reforms, after which negotiations are opened which can last for more years while the candidate aligns its laws with EU standards. The economic and social challenges in Bosnia are also formidable. In its latest report, the EU said Bosnia had fallen back on some issues, including the freedom of expression and required judiciary reforms. Bosnia has yet to harmonise its constitution with a 2009 ruling by the European human rights court ordering it to allow minorities, such as Roma and Jews, to run for top offices. Currently only Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats may run for president. It also has yet to publish the results of its first postwar census held in 2013, another request from the EU, because the country’s two regions cannot agree on the methodology in counting citizens. The census is at risk of being annulled. The economy, which grew by 3.1 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of last year, is weighed down by a bloated public sector and saddled with one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates at 27.7 percent. It is struggling to reach agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a new 1 billion marka ($558 million) loan agreement. In the midst of the general pessimism, the fact the EU application process is moving forward offers a glimmer of hope. Bosnia was allowed to submit its application by implementing a number of reforms agreed last summer with the EU, and created a requested coordination mechanism for dealing with the bloc with the consent of all governments, although the nationalist Serb Republic government later disputed the deal. “Outside investors look at the EU as the anchor the country is tied to so even the process is a really, really good signal to investors that Bosnia is a stable environment to invest in,” Ian Brown, head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s mission in Bosnia, told Reuters in an interview.