LOCAL PRESS 

Selakovic: Traditionally good and friendly relations with the Czech Repubic (Tanjug/RTV/RTS) 

Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic and his Czech counterpart Tomas Petricek agreed that the relations between the two countries are traditionally good and friendly and that today’s visit of the delegation of the Czech Republic to Belgrade is representative of the dynamic and continuity of political dialogue that exists at all levels. Speaking at a joint press conference at the Palace of Serbia, Selakovic said that the good and traditionally friendly relations will be further confirmed by the visit of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to Prague on 18-19 May. He thanked Petricek, the Czech government and President Milos Zeman on their strong support to Serbia on its European path. The Czech Republic sincerely and strongly supports the European integration of Serbia and we are convinced that during the Portuguese presidency we will soon have an intergovernmental conference, the Serbian Foreign Minister underlined. Selakovic and Petricek also discussed the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and regional cooperation. Selakovic underlined that Serbia has been and will be ready to support the Czech Republic in the further fight against COVID-19 and everything it causes. Petricek expressed satisfaction that he is in Belgrade today with a delegation of Czech businessmen at the business forum, organized in the circumstances dictated by the pandemic of coronavirus. Today we can build upon traditionally good relations and talk about developing economic cooperation. The Czech Republic is interested in working with Serbia on the development of cooperation in the field of trade, tourism, economic investments, strategic sectors such as railway transport or smart cities, Petricek stated.

European Parliament facilitators complete preparations for Serbia dialogue (N1) 

The European Parliament officials mediating the inter-party dialogue in Serbia said on Tuesday that they completed their internal preparations for the next stage of the process. “The facilitators of the Inter-Party Dialogue with the Serbian parliament, MEPs Vladimir Bilcik, Tanja Fajon, former MEPs Knut Fleckenstein and Eduard Kukan completed the internal preparations for the consultation phase of the Inter-Party Dialogue process. For the next two months, we have established a robust planning, which consists of meetings with the parliamentary group leaders, the opposition leaders, governmental representatives and other relevant stakeholders in Serbia. The objective is to consult and exchange on the priorities for the agenda of the upcoming round of the Inter-Party Dialogue as well as the modalities of engagement,” they said in a joint statement. It added that “the consultation phase comes as a natural follow-up to the launch of the second phase of the Inter-Party dialogue with Serbian speaker Ivica Dacic on 1 March 2021”. “The facilitation team will coordinate with the Speaker the next steps necessary for a successful and meaningful dialogue,” it said. According to the statement, the Inter-Party Dialogue process should be viewed as a platform for a constructive dialogue between political opponents because cooperation and mutual respect in matters of national interest are key for democracy.

Opposition party calls on EP to activate government-opposition dialogue as soon as possible (Beta) 

The Party of Freedom and Justice appealed to representatives of the European Parliament (EP) to activate a dialogue between the government and opposition as soon as possible and said that the adoption of resolutions and their implementation needed to leave enough time and credibility for the opposition to accept participation in upcoming elections. “There is no more time. At a time when the authorities are doing everything to undermine the efforts of the EP and relativize the dialogue the only losers are the Serbian citizens and the EU,” the party said, adding that the political crisis in Serbia is coming increasingly deep and radical. According to the party, the latest statement by EP rapporteur for Serbia Vladimir Bilcik that the final phase of the dialogue will be held in the summer or early autumn, already calls into question the purpose of the process, if not even the minimum of time for carrying out the opposition’s demands is left.

Furthermore, it said, the situation in Serbia is alarming, there is no rule of law, the rule of law is

only a notion, while the judiciary has been imprisoned in the political hands of representatives of

the government who are picking prosecutors and judges which, as a result, is anything but

independent.

EU, US to cooperate much more tightly in policy on Western Balkans (Beta) 

The EU and the US are determined to cooperate much more tightly in their policy on the Western Balkans and in finding solutions for relations between Belgrade and Pristina, although Brussels will have the final say in negotiations on a comprehensive agreement for the issue of Kosovo. European diplomatic sources in Brussels told Beta this on 30 March and stressed that the Washington administration would strongly support this as the EU’s and US’ strategies and geopolitical interests in the Western Balkans overlap to a large degree, especially where the goal of fitting the region into the EU and its economic and political order is concerned,

while preventing the expansion of Chinese and Russian influence. Still, they said, there is no clear vision of a comprehensive, internationally acceptable solution to relations between Serbia and Kosovo, but the US’ and EU’s goal is to wrap up the issue with the acceptance of some kind of autonomy for Kosovo, although the explicit stance of Europeans is that this must be done with the consent of Belgrade and Pristina.

US State Department: Human rights violations, corruption cases in Serbia in 2020 (N1) 

According to a report released by the US State Department on Tuesday, Serbia is a country marked by significant human rights challenges in 2020, and a significant number of issues in different areas like severe restrictions on freedom of expression, including violence, threats of violence and unjustified arrests and prosecutions of journalists. The State Department 2020 report cites numerous cases of corruption among members of the government, crimes involving violence or threats of violence against persons with disabilities, and crimes committed against members of sexual minorities – the LGBT population. Also, it said that „the constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but courts remained susceptible to corruption and political influence. Civil society contacts and international organizations such as the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) criticized the slow pace of constitutional reforms aimed at reducing political influence over the judiciary, the High Judicial Council, and the State Prosecutorial Council. The State Prosecutorial Council’s commissioner for autonomy examined more than 40 cases of alleged inappropriate political influence and issued several advisory opinions. The High Judicial Council expressed concern that 74 courts in the country operated under acting presidents.” The report deals with violations of freedom of expression, including the freedom of the press. “The constitution provides for freedom of expression, including for the press, but threats and attacks on journalists, a lack of transparency of media ownership, and the oversized role of the state in the country’s oversaturated media sector undermined these freedoms. The Nations in Transit 2020 report from the watchdog organization Freedom House downgraded the country from a ‘semiconsolidated democracy’ to a ‘transitional or hybrid regime,’ citing deterioration of media freedoms as one of the country’s biggest problems. In its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, the NGO Reporters without Borders noted, ‘Serbia has become a country where it is often dangerous to be a journalist and where fake news is gaining in visibility and popularity at an alarming rate.” Unbalanced media coverage and a large volume of fake, misleading, or unverified news stories continued to threaten the ability of citizens to participate meaningfully in the democratic process. The report recalled the 1999 presumed killing of the Bytiqi brothers. “Throughout the year media reported on the disappearance and presumed killing of Ylli, Agron, and Mehmet Bytyqi, three Kosovar-American brothers taken into custody by Serb paramilitary groups and buried on the grounds of a police training center commanded by Goran Radosavljevic.” “The government made no significant progress toward providing justice for the victims, and it was unclear to what extent authorities were actively investigating the case.”

REGIONAL PRESS 

 

Di Maio holds meetings with B&H senior officials; says Italy advocates enlargement of EU to Western Balkans and continuation of reforms and EU integration of B&H (RTRS)

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy Luigi Di Maio met with the Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Presidency members in Sarajevo on Tuesday. Di Maio and the B&H Presidency members, among other things, discussed the need for the EU to support B&H and the Western Balkans in the fight against the pandemic, not only in response to the humanitarian and health crisis, but also in mitigating the socio-economic consequences. Di Maio stated that Italy advocates the enlargement of the EU to the Western Balkans and continuation of reforms and EU integration of B&H. Di Maio also met with members of the Collegium of both Houses of the B&H parliament. Di Maio stressed that it is necessary to reexamine the COVAX mechanism for the procurement of vaccines against the coronavirus because it did not meet the expectations. Di Maio also met with Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers (CoM) Zoran Tegeltija, using this opportunity to say that agencies for the procurement of vaccines are obliged to comply with all contractual obligations with B&H. Di Maio stressed that the first quantities of COVAX vaccines arrived. "But, we have to force the agencies for the procurement of those vaccines to respect adopted decisions towards Italy and toward others," Di Maio underlined. Tegeltija, on the other hand, said: "It was shown in these conversations as well that pharmaceutical companies did not comply with their contractual obligations." Di Maio said that it is important to stress Italy’s endeavors to see B&H as the EU member state, adding that B&H authorities should be strong and make all the steps that will bring the country to the EU. He expressed hope that B&H will get the EU candidate status soon. Tegeltija said that they concluded at the meeting that economic relations between B&H and Italy are well-developed, but that the level of bilateral cooperation is not at the satisfactory level. Di Maio said that he came to B&H to – among other things - express gratitude to B&H for its solidarity at the times Italy fought with the first wave of the pandemic.

During the meeting with members of the Presidency of B&H, participants pointed out the importance of continuous support of Italy within the EU in the next steps of B&H and in continuation of fulfillment of 14 key priorities from the European Commission’s Opinion. The collocutors also discussed the migrant crisis and security.

Inzko informs Di Maio about status and challenges regarding implementation of Dayton agreement (Dnevni list)

Dnevni list reports that High Representative (HR) Valentin Inzko met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy Luigi Di Maio (in Sarajevo on Monday), whom he informed about the status and challenges regarding the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. “Progress in B&H is possible, but it requires the political leadership of B&H to demonstrate the necessary political will to put the country’s interest first. This requires a paradigm shift in the way politics is conducted in this country. European integration, strengthening of the rule of law and economic development should be at the forefront of B&H’s efforts. The international community stands ready to help, to achieve European standards,” said the High Representative. Inzko expressed his appreciation to Minister Di Maio for Italy’s continued support to B&H, the Office of the High Representative and the International Community’s efforts to help B&H advance in implementation of reforms.

‘Pod lupom’ conference on election reform: International officials agree it is necessary to change B&H Election Law (Nezavisne novine)

The online conference titled ‘Election Reform 2021’ which is hosted by the Coalition for Free and Fair Election ‘Pod lupom’ continued on Tuesday. Speaking at the conference, Head of OSCE Mission to B&H Kathleen Kavalec stated that the existing election system leaves too much room for errors, irregularities and abuse. As a result, there is a widespread mistrust of the public in almost all elements of the election process. Head of EU Delegation to B&H Johann Sattler stated that constitutional and election legislation reform are part of the 14 priorities defined by the European Commission’s Opinion on B&H’s membership application. He explained that the necessary changes are not abstract, but very specific, sound changes. Sattler noted that these changes would also correct the shortcomings highlighted in the last local and general elections, and that they are crucial for B&H’s path to EU. US Ambassador to B&H Eric Nelson said that 2021 which is a year without elections represents an opportunity which B&H must not miss. He added that B&H Parliament will play the key role in the reform process. He also noted that the election reform is one of the 14 priorities defined by the EC, and that the Inter-Agency Working Group for election reform should include representatives of the opposition parties as well. B&H Central Election Commission President Zeljko Bakalar stated that from the Commission’s perspective, it is necessary to change the method of appointment of polling station committee members.

Constitutional law expert Lukic on Dodik’s initiative to merge offices of RS President and B&H Presidency member from RS: It is not realistic because it would require constitutional changes (Glas Srpske)

B&H Presidency member and SNSD leader Milorad Dodik announced that he will initiate merging of the functions of Republika Srpska (RS) President and Serb member of B&H Presidency during the upcoming talks on B&H election legislation reform. Commenting Dodik’s initiative, constitutional law expert Radomir Lukic stated that merging of functions of the RS President and B&H Presidency member would require changes to B&H Election Law as well as the RS Constitution. According to Lukic, it will be difficult to secure the support of the necessary majority for such changes. “Changes to the RS Constitution require a two-third majority in the RS parliament and majority votes in every Caucus in the RS Council of Peoples. Considering the current state of political relations in B&H and the RS, it is not realistic,” said Lukic. The daily reminds that representatives of the ruling parties expressed support to Dodik’s initiative as a principle, but they noted that it requires a thorough analysis. On the other hand, SDS and PDP rejected Dodik’s idea. Dodik’s advisor Milan Tegeltija welcomed the initiative as a good idea. He explained that if the RS was an independent state, the RS President would be in charge of commanding the military forces and foreign policy.

Basic: Nelson’s and Inzko’s letter regarding changes to Law on Internal Affairs is not a negative reaction (Oslobodjenje)

Spokeswoman for the Police Administration of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) of the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC) Aldina Alic, said the position of the Police Administration regarding proposed changes to the Law on Internal Affairs of ZDC remains unchanged, namely the Police Administration submitted its negative opinion to proposed changes to the law to the ZDC Interior Minister and expert services to the ZDC government. The daily reminds that US Ambassador to B&H Eric Nelson and High Representative (HR) Valentin Inzko issued a letter to the ZDC authorities in which they, among other issues, warned that recently proposed amendments to the law inappropriately bypass the procedures and impose direct political control over the police system in the ZDC. Nelson and Inzko requested that the amendments be withdrawn and redirected to a working group, which would be led by the Police Administration and include experts, including experts from the US Embassy and the OHR. ZDC Prime Minister (PM) Mirnes Basic said he does not see (Nelson’s and Inzko’s) the letter as a negative reaction, arguing it is only an initiative of a representative (in the ZDC Assembly), which has to go through the procedures in the government and the Assembly. “I do not know what will happen to the initiative. What I can say is that the government will protect the law and the Constitution of the Zenica-Doboj Canton,” stressed Basic. ZDC Interior Minister Dario Pekic was away on trip on Tuesday, which is why the daily could not get his comment.

 

Croatia demands changes to Election Law in B&H (Hina)

Ahead of the April’s debate of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Western Balkans, Croatia has prepared an unofficial document asking the EU to focus on B&H. The document calls for urgent changes to B&H Election Law. “It is necessary to secure that the next election in B&H is implemented in line with European standards based on recommendations of the OSCE observer mission and the Venice Commission, and to immediately start with reform of B&H Election Law in order to avoid future manipulation of the election process,” reads the document. The daily noted that this is not the first time that Croatian representatives in the EU insist on changes to B&H Election Law and claim that the existing law allows imposing of Croat representatives elected by others.

 

Radovic: Injac failed to tell truth, we’re waiting for Krivokapic to suggest new date (CdM)

In response to allegations of the Defense Minister Olivera Injac and MP Jelena Bozovic at the session of the parliament “that the Army of Montenegro has been blocked,” because President Milo Djukanovic doesn’t want to convene the session of the security council, the Head of the President of Montenegro’s cabinet Miodrag Radovic reacted, noting that Minister Injac failed to tell the truth about the matter. “On 10 February 2021, parliament speaker Aleksa Becic and Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic sent a letter to President Djukanovic asking for consultations, as they believe that all conditions for convening the session of the Defense and Security Council have been met, based on the initiative of the Minister of Defense, and required him to propose three free dates. The President accepted and immediately proposed four dates, while both president of the parliament and PM agreed on 16 February 2021. The meeting was supposed to be held in Villa Gorica,” he noted. However, on the day before the meeting, the head of the PM’s cabinet informed us that they had to postpone the meeting and would offer a new date during the day. “Asked by our Cabinet about the new date, we received an answer that it would not be possible to organize it that week.” He continued: “I hereby have to say that the Cabinet of the parliament speaker said they’d agree on all proposed dates and deals once the PM suggests them, but that hasn’t happened yet.”

Krivokapic speaks with Lavrov (PM PR Service)

Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic spoke with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov. The two officials discussed the fight against the coronavirus and the possible procurement of Russian vaccines, as well as other topics of common interest.

The Montenegrin Prime Minister and the Russian Foreign Minister stated that this year Montenegro and Russia are marking 310 years since the establishment of official political contacts and 15 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations after the restoration of Montenegro's independence. Both sides expressed desire to mark these anniversaries with a cultural event.

 

Abazovic: Genocide happened in Srebrenica, whoever doesn’t understand it can’t be on public post (CdM)

A genocide happened in Srebrenica, Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic points out. According to him, the government of Montenegro complies with all international verdicts.

“There’s no need to discuss this topic. Whoever doesn’t understand this can’t be on public post. Let’s turn to future, we have a lot of work to do,” Abazovic tweeted.

Becanovic already spoke about Srebrenica as Leposavic is telling now (CdM)

While the international community reacts unfavorably to Justice Minister Vladimir Leposavic’s statement denying the Srebrenica genocide and while the URA MP Bozena Jelusic allegedly says he should be dismissed, we wish to remind the international and domestic public of the statement of Tatjana Becanovic, a member of the URA management, back in 2020, concerning the genocide. Becanovic said in August that a horrific massacre happened in Srebrenica, but could not say it was a genocide. “When it comes to the term ‘genocide’, I’m not an expert from that area and cannot designate it like that. A horrific crime happened there. Whether it’s a genocide,” Becanovic said among other things.

 

Amendments to Electoral Code, signed by all parliamentary groups, submitted (Republika)

VMRO-DPMNE MP Antonio Milososki informed Tuesday that the bill on Amendments to the Electoral Code has been submitted and has been signed by all parliamentary groups. The amendments, according to him envisage two key things. The first is to move the date for the local elections for the second half of October, which means that the local elections would be held on 24 or 31 October this year and the second change is to enable efficient use and realization of the legal obligation to use fingerprint devices during the voting, which allows the SEC to be efficiently connected to the database of the Ministry of Interior, he said. Milososki believes that these proposed changes will increase confidence in the election process, especially in an unfortunately polarized society like ours. The second thing I want to mention is that we expect during today’s government session to realize what was agreed at yesterday’s leaders’ meeting, and that the government will transform the agreement to postpone the census for September into a proposal for changes and amendment to the census law and submit it to the Macedonian parliament as soon as possible so that according to the agreement it can be voted before the start of the census, he added.

Pendarovski and Filipce clash over the Serbian vaccination fiasco (Republika)

President Stevo Pendarovski said that the scenes of having thousands of Macedonian citizens go to Serbia to get vaccinated is an embarrassment. Macedonia utterly failed at providing vaccines for its citizens and the moment Serbia announced it has surplus Astra Zeneca vaccines, thousands took to Belgrade and Nish hoping to get vaccinated. Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce fired back at Pendarovski, saying that he, as President, didn’t support the process of procuring vaccines at all. The scenes we saw in Serbia over the weekend, where our citizens were being vaccinated, is an embarrassment for the country and must not happen again, Pendarovski said after the meeting of the Security Council convened to discuss the coronavirus crisis. He also expressed his gratitude to Serbia for sharing the vaccines. Filipce, who attended the Council, quickly responded that Pendarovski contributed with nothing to the search for vaccines. I am surprised by the statement from President Pendarovski. The scenes from Serbia are not an embarrassment, they are an expression of solidarity during a crisis. Citizens of other countries also went to Serbia to be vaccinated but their presidents did not say it’s an embarrassment. The government is doing all it can to provide vaccines and the vaccination begins tomorrow. The President of the state is an institution that should also play an important role in the procurement processes. Unfortunately, there was no specific support from Pendarovski, Filipce said.

High level spat erupts as top Zaev officials blame each other for the vaccine fiasco (Republika)

President Stevo Pendarovski fired another shot at Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce after the two traded barbs about who is more responsible for the pitiful state of vaccination in Macedonia.

Pendarovski opened the exchange when, after the meeting of the National Security Council, he stated that the footage of about 10,000 Macedonian citizens going to Serbia to look for vaccines is an “embarrassment”. Filipce took this as an attack on his work, and responded that Pendarovski is also partially responsible for working with international companies and organizations who have the vaccines, but that he was of no practical assistance. It is true that Serbia showed solidarity toward 10,000 our citizens. But it is difficult to say that these images of our citizens trying to obtain healthcare services abroad are something to be proud about. President Pendarovski is surprised that Minister Filipce consciously neglects to mention the fact that the initial contacts with the biggest pharmaceutical companies at the end of December last year were done precisely through the office of the President. Since then, President Pendarovski was actively involved through diplomatic channels in the process of procuring vaccines, which is primarily under the mandate of the Healthcare Minister, Pendarovski’s office said in response. The public scene of two top officials of the Zaev regime feuding over who gets to be blamed for the vaccine fiasco showed how seriously the regime is hit by the loss of credibility on this key issue. Filipce faced calls for a criminal investigation into his Chinese dealings, when he tried to use a shell company registered in American Samoa to buy 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines. The Chinese manufacturer withdrew from the deal after this scandal and this set Macedonia back tremendously in the vaccine race. Only today odds began to brighten a little, as Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fanghe came to Macedonia as part of his regional tour. VMRO-DPMNE official Antonio Milososki condemned both Filipce and Pendarovski for the failure of the SDSM led regime, and noted that the situation Macedonia is in is due to its policies. Over the past three months Macedonia lost a significant portion of its healthcare sovereignty. That is an inseparable component of security sovereignty. Due to the incompetence of the government Macedonia lost a portion of its sovereignty to Serbia – not by Serbia’s fault but due to the government’s incompetence, Milososki said. Even some mid tier regime officials were seen standing in line in the vaccination centers in Nish and Belgrade, which only added to the sense of failure. Outlets and commentators normally supportive of the Zaev regime openly criticized Filipce for the situation Macedonia found itself in, as they traded tips for finding vaccines in Serbia.

Palmer calls on Zaev to do more to fight corruption (Republika/VoA)

US diplomat Matthew Palmer called on the PM Zoran Zaev to step up the fight against corruption, while still insisting that census should take place and that the opposition should not boycott the parliament. The better job the government does in fighting corruption, the more they get that problem under control, the more other countries, including NATO allies, will look at Macedonia as a place where they want to invest, Palmer said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA). The Zaev regime is hit by a series of corruption scandals which are largely left uninvestigated, while the judiciary is focused mainly on persecuting opposition officials. Palmer said that he hopes the EU will soon allow Macedonia to open its accession talks, that are currently blocked by Bulgaria, which demands major concessions from Macedonia on issues of history and national identity. Palmer called on Macedonia and Bulgaria to resolve the issue and not raise it at the level of NATO. What we would like to see is (North) Macedonia and Bulgaria working in dialogue to resolve issues in the bilateral relationship keeping those issues out of multilateral formats including NATO and in particular right now the European Union, the assistant deputy secretary said. As quoted by VOA, Palmer called on Macedonia to hold the census. He intervened last week to ask VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski to support the census initiated by Prime Minister Zaev and his Albanian allies. Yesterday, Zaev agreed to Mickoski’s demand that the census is postponed for September, despite protests from the Albanian parties, who are now hoping for a new US intervention so that the census goes ahead. An element of the agreement is that VMRO provides a quorum for some of the legislative agenda pushed by Zaev, and Palmer reiterated this call. What’s important is that the opposition shows up for parliament. That’s their job. Boycotts, blockades, not doing their job, none of those are conducive to progress, the diplomat said. Regarding the utter failure of the Zaev regime to procure vaccines, in part due to Zaev’s early insistence that he will only purchase Western produced vaccines, Palmer said that any Western help will come through the slow and unreliable Covax mechanism. The US is not engaged in this kind of vaccine diplomacy. Russia and China are using the vaccines as instruments of influence in a manner that I think is deeply problematic. The US is supporting the multilateral mechanisms, in particular the Covax mechanism, Palmer added.

 

US will have observers for 25 April elections (Radio Tirana)

The US will have observers for the 25 April election. The news was announced by US Ambassador Yuri Kim after a meeting with the Head of the OSCE-ODIHR mission in Albania Urszula Gacek to observe the 25 April elections. In a note on social networks, the US ambassador underlined that the US will also have observers on the ground for the 25 April elections, and even she will be on the ground. Discussed with Amb. Urszula Gacek, Head of OSCE-ODIHR for election observation in preparations in Albania for 4/25 elections. USA supports this important mission, including by contributing observers. US Embassy will also dispatch our team (including me) to locations around the country'' writes ambassador Kim on Twitter.