Belgrade, April 7, 2010

SERBIA

MICUNOVIC, GANTAR CONFER ON WESTERN BALKANS
LJUBLJANA, April 6 (Tanjug) - Serbia does not recognize Kosovo, but is committed to peacefully resolving all open issues there, in keeping with European standards, President of the Serbian parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Dragoljub Micunovic said Tuesday meeting President of the Slovenian National Assembly Pavel Gantar.
The goal of Serbia's policy is to secure the respect of the rights of the Serb people in Kosovo, including education and protection of Serb cultural heritage, Micunovic said. Gantar and Micunovic also conferred on the situation in Western Balkans. Gantar pointed to Slovenia's endeavors to keep the European Union focused on various unresolved issues in that region. He also pointed to the importance of the fostering of bilateral relations. The main focus should be on issues bringing the two countries closer, he said. Micunovic, who is on a two-day visit to Slovenia, conferred Tuesday with President of the Slovenian parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Janja Klasinc and will later meet with Prime Minister Borut Pahor.

MICUNOVIC: SERBIA WAITS FOR ICJ'S DECISION ON KOSOVO
LJUBLJANA, April 6 (Tanjug) - Serbia is open to respecting all the factors and to finding a solution for Kosovo after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) states whether the proclamation of Kosovo independence was in accordance with international law, Chairman of the Serbian parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee Dragoljub Micunovic said in Ljubljana on Tuesday.
"We are open to taking into account all the factors and to finding an appropriate solution," Micunovic stressed during a lecture at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. According to him, Serbia will accept all the solutions which lead towards peace and stability, and the country will make no choice between the EU and Kosovo, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported. Micunovic also expressed hope that the ICJ will propose an international conference on Kosovo, and pointed out that the solutions should be discussed in a civilized way.
According to STA, Micunovic stated that Serbia does not want to dominate Kosovo, but rather to ensure respect for the rights of the Serb and other minorities, the preservation of cultural heritage and the resolving of problems concerning 10,000 nationalized apartments of Serbs who lived in Pristina and Serb enterprises in Kosovo.

MICUNOVIC CONFERS WITH PAHOR
LJUBLJANA, April 6 (Tanjug) - Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor and Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Dragoljub Micunovic said at their meeting in Ljubljana on Tuesday that cooperation between the two countries is good, and relations friendly, Pahor's cabinet said.
Pahor stressed that Serbia is one of the most important destinations for Slovenia's investors, and added that Slovenia wants the economic cooperation between the two countries to improve even further, to the benefit of both countries, the Slovenian Press Agency STA reports. Informing the guest on the initiatives launched at the March conference of the Western Balkans leaders in Brdo pri Kranju, the Slovenian premier pointed out that the next step should be a regional meeting of transportation and infrastructure ministers.
Srbija chose not to attend the last month's conference because its proposal that Kosovo appears there in keeping with the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which means that it cannot be represented as an independent country, was not accepted.

MICUNOVIC: SLOVENIA SUPPORTS SERBIA'S EU INTEGRATION
LJUBLJANA, BELGRADE, April 6 (Tanjug) - Slovenia strongly supports Serbia's integration in the European Union and is ready to invest as much as it can in Serbia's economy, President of the Serbian parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Dragoljub Micunovic told Tanjug Tuesday from Ljubljana.
Bilateral relations are developing well and Slovenian officials also invited businessmen from Serbia to invest in Slovenia, he said. Micunovic conferred Tuesday with President of the Slovenian National Assembly Pavel Gantar, President of the Slovenian parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Janja Klasinc and Prime Minister Borut Pahor. He also gave a lecture at the Faculty of Social Sciences.
On Wednesday, Micunovic will meet with Slovenian President Danilo Turk. Slovenia wants to foster even better relations with Serbia in the economy, culture and other sectors, as there are no major open issues between the two countries, he said. One of the topics of the talks with Slovenian officials was how Serbs in that country can get the status of ethnic minority, Micunovic said.

DJELIC: SERBIA CAN GET MAJOR FUNDING FOR DANUBE
BELGRADE, April 6 (Tanjug) - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for EU Integration Bozidar Djelic announced Tuesday that a major European conference will be held in Belgrade on September 24 to discuss financing the Danube Strategy, and pointed out that the Danube River can bring Serbia considerable funds in the coming period. "It is a great asset for the country and we need to use it properly," Dejlic said at the Danube Strategy and the Economy of Knowledge conference at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Belgrade.
He said that Serbia can receive sizable funding from the EU for water purification and infrastructure projects such as bridge construction. Djelic said that the EU will allot over EUR 50 million in total for the Danube Strategy and that the river, defined as Pan-European Corridor 7, represents a "development opportunity for Serbia." In the next year alone, some EUR 20 million to 30 million from IPA funds will be spent on Danube projects, Djelic stressed.
"Serbia can get considerable help to become a major tourist destination, because it has some of the most attractive sites along the Danube, but they are not sufficiently exploited," he pointed out. The deputy prime minister said that a conference will be held in Bratislava and Vienna from April 19 to 21, where countries will present their most important ecology and infrastructure projects for the Danube river system. The director of the Institute Jaroslav Cerni, Milan Dimkic, said that Serbia needs EUR 500 million a year for upkeep and close to another EUR 500 million for investments in the river.

40 SERBIAN CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE TRAVEL TO VIENNA
BELGRADE, April 6 (Tanjug) - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for EU Integration Bozidar Djelic and Minister of Labor and Social Policy Rasim Ljajic saw off 40 Serbian children without parental care who left on a three-day visit to Vienna.
Organized as part of the project Europe for All, the trip will give the young people from Belgrade, Nis, Krusevac, Negotin and Sremski Karlovci a chance to meet their Austrian peers and experience new things, Djelic said at the Belgrade airport. He explained that the trip was organized by his office in cooperation with the Telenor Foundation, the Ministry of Labor and the European Movement in Serbia.
Ljajic pointed out that the visit to Vienna should provide "pleasure for kids growing up in more difficult circumstances than their peers, because they were without parental care in times of sanctions, wars and bombing." He noted that the group includes not only children from children's homes but also those in foster care, in an effort to give them as normal a life as possible. The trip was also made possible by sponsors Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, Austrian airline Niki, Austrian insurance company Uniqa and UniCredit Bank.

AGREEMENT ON EUR 200 MIL-RUSSIAN LOAN SIGNED
BELGRADE, April 7 (Tanjug) - Serbian Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic and Russian Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin signed an agreement on a Russian loan worth USD 200 million in Moscow on Wednesday, which is granted as a support to the budget of Serbia and for the funding of the country's deficit.
Dragutinovic stated after the signing ceremony that it was possible for the agreement to be signed before the end of 2009, adding that the signing was realized in 2010 in order to avoid the changes in the Russian laws. The talks on the signing of another loan agreement, which will be used for the financing of infrastructure projects in Serbia, will be intensified in May, Dragutiovic announced. She recalled that both loans were initiated by Serbian President Boris Tadic in a letter which was sent to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in March 2009.
The annual interest rate will be determined using the Libor interest rate for six-month deposits in U.S. dollars, plus 2.95 percent. The grace period is until March 2012 while the maturity date is the end of 2021. The agreement also envisages that Serbia has right to premature loan repayment without paying interest in arrears.

KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

SSK DOES NOT WANT JUDGES FROM SERBIA PROPOSED BY EULEX
PRISTINA, April 6 (Tanjug) - The Kosovo Judicial Council (SSK) insists that only the Serb judges who are not connected with the judicial system of Serbia work at the District Court in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, the Pristina daily Koha Ditore reported on Tuesday.
President of the SSK Enver Peci told the daily that the institution he chairs will invite the Serb judges who are still working in Kosovo courts to start working in the District Court in Kosovska Mitrovica. The SSK wants uncorrupted Serb judges who will return to the court in Mitrovica and who should work together with two Albanian judges. This will certainly not be Tomislav Petrovic and Jelena Krivokapic who were proposed by EULEX representatives, the daily reports. Petrovic and Krivokapic deserted the judicial system of Kosovo and joined the judicial system of Serbia, the daily adds.
According to Koha Ditore, the EULEX proposed two Serb judges based on an agreement with Belgrade, and judge Petrovic told the daily that he obtained guarantees from Head of EULEX Justice Component in Pristina Alberto Perduca that he will be paid by both the government in Pristina and the Serbian government if he accepts the proposal to work in Mitrovica. Peci stressed that EULEX officials are introduced with SSK's disagreement regarding the Serb judges, but added, however, that he doubts EULEX will accept the council's stands. Tom Gasi, a legal advisor to Kosovo prime minister, said that no judge can be appointed in Kosovo if he was appointed by the judicial system of Serbia at the same time.