Belgrade, March 25, 2010

SERBIA - CROATIA

INFORMAL MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENTS OF SERBIA AND CROATIA

OPATIJA, March 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic and his Croatian counterpart Ivo Josipovic stated Wednesday that the two countries should form a European partnership to work towards the Western Balkans' integration into the EU and to establish European values throughout the region.
"The goal of both countries is to be part of the European family of nations, which requires the implementation of European reforms and values in both of them," Tadic told reporters after his meeting with Josipovic. The two presidents met in Opatija, for the first time since Josipovic's inauguration, and discussed open issues between the two countries and ways of improving their relations. The two also talked about the cases that Serbia and Croatia have started against each other before the International Court of Justice and the possibility of an out-of-court settlement. "It would be good if the disputes were settled out of court, which does not mean that cases against those who committed war crimes would be dropped. All those who committed war crimes must answer for them," said Tadic, stressing that countries must not be hostages of crimes done by individuals. According to Tadic, both sides are prepared to work towards a compromise that would uphold the principles of justice.
Josipovic noted that the circumstances are different nowadays compared to the time when Croatia filed charges against Serbia, adding that it is within the authority of the two governments to find out if an out-of-court settlement is possible. "If we can settle on the issues that are the subject of the lawsuit, then the lawsuit has no point," Josipovic remarked. Josipovic stated that there was no mention of giving Serbia Croatian translations of EU legislation at the meeting, but he is convinced that Croatia will do so, as announced earlier by its Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor.
The two officials also discussed the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and agreed that the integrity of that country must not be questioned. Tadic pointed out that the same goes for the Dayton Agreement, adding that the solution for BiH should guarantee a common future for all three of its peoples. Josipovic emphasized the willingness of Serbia and Croatia to help the people in BiH find a solution they would agree on.
The first meeting between Tadic and Josipovic was held in an informal atmosphere. Josipovic greeted his guest at the airport on Krk island, after which the two went on a ship, which took them to Opatija.

NEW ERA IN RELATIONS OF TWO COUNTRIES AND WHOLE REGION

BELGRADE, March 25 (Tanjug) - The meeting of Serbian and Croatian presidents Boris Tadic and Ivo Josipovic is a positive event which will ease relations not only between Belgrade and Zagreb, but in the entire region as well, the director of the Center for Regionalism of the Igman Initiative, Aleksandar Popov, assessed on Thursday.
"The decisions are positive and promising, especially because they came out of an informal and hastily organized first meeting of the two presidents. Everything that was said promises a new era not only in the relations of the two countries, but in the region as well," Popov told the BBC. Popov believes President Tadic used the meeting to allay the effects of his decision not to attend the Western Balkan conference, which was held on March 20, at Brdo pri Kranju in Slovenia.
Croatian Ambassador in Belgrade Zeljko Kupresak told Radio Free Europe that the two leaders set up the informal meeting in Opatija in a direct conversation. "It was arranged very quickly, out of the simple need to start communicating. The idea came from both presidents, who made this happen without any outside influences," Kupresak said. Brussels also welcomed the news of the meeting between the presidents of the two countries which are still troubled by many unresolved issues 15 years after the war in former Yugoslavia.

SERBIA

CVETKOVIC: SERBIA SUPPORTS REGIONAL COOPERATION

BELGRADE, March 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic stated Wednesday that the Serbian government wants to support regional cooperation, resolve problems by way of talks and improve regional relations.
At the business roundtable entitled New Directions for Growth in the organization of Economist Conferences, Cvetkovic said that he agrees with international officials and investors who claim that there are problems in the Balkans. This is exactly why Serbia tends to settle all those problems "by way of talks, rather than unfriendly activities," he added. "We support the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and the efforts to solve the problems in BiH through internal dialogue, which is our contribution to the stability of that country and the region," the prime minister underlined. He said that Serbia has an active and constructive role in the resolution of other regional problems as well, pointing out that Serbia's integrity is an important issue, as it represents a joint value of the humankind.
"No one should be afraid that we will cross the red line," Cvetkovic said. He stressed that the Serbian government is waiting for The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give its legal opinion on the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo independence, which will initiate talks on the status of the southern Serbian province and lead to a solution that will be acceptable for everyone. Cvetkovic also pointed out that Serbia will do its best to help improve the relations in the region.

JEREMIC PRESENTS CHALLENGES OF SERBIA'S DIPLOMACY

BELGRADE, March 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic presented Wednesday to his ministry's foreign policy council the current foreign policy situation and challenges of Serbia's diplomacy.
Jeremic asked council members for their opinion on the important foreign policy issues, the Foreign Ministry said in a release. The meeting was chaired by council President Sonja Liht.

JEREMIC: SERBIA AFFLICTED BY LONGTERM REFUGEE PROBLEM

BELGRADE, March 25 (Tanjug) - Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Thursday at a regional conference on refugees that Serbia is among the top five countries in the world with a longterm refugee problem, and that 86,000 people with refugee status currently live in the country.
Addressing the conference attended by representatives of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the European Union, and the foreign ministers of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and other countries in the region, the foreign minister pointed out it is imperative to enable refugees to return to their homes, pay out back pensions, resolve property ownership issues and validate past pension contributions for all refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). "There must be no discrimination toward refugees and displaced persons.
Taking care of these people is the primary concern of us all and there must be no state borders when it comes to this issue," Jeremic told the conference entitled Durable Solutions for Refugees and IDPs - Cooperation in the Region. Jeremic said the Serbian government supports full implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration through regional cooperation, and assessed that the problem of refugees and IDPs could be overcome if Serbia works together with its friends in the EU and international organizations.

ARBOLEDA: UNHCR AND EU TO PRESENT JOINT DOCUMENT

BELGRADE, March 24 (Tanjug) - The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the EU will present a joint document on long-term solutions for refugees at an international conference in Belgrade, Eduardo Arboleda, head of UNHCR Office in Serbia, announced Wednesday.
The ministerial conference will be held on Thursday and involve delegations from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as from international institutions for human rights and protection of refugees. The meeting will be organized by Serbia, a country that has provided shelter for nearly a million refugees in the past two decades and a country that two years ago UNHCR declared as suffering a long-term refugee crisis.
Arboleda told Tanjug that UNHCR and EU have identified various open issues, from property rights to problems with the return of refugees and their reintegration into society. The joint document, Arboleda explained, suggests that politics be removed from the whole process and cooperation between governments in the region be based on the needs of the refugees and displaced persons.
The new document tries to employ technical cooperation to determine the accurate number of people who returned to their country of origin, the number of those still living as refugees and those who are living in very poor conditions, said Arboleda. According to him, common parameters need to be set for a complete revision of the needs of refugees in order to find out their exact needs and the cost of providing for them.

DINKIC SIGNS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH AUSTRIA

VIENNA, March 25 (Tanjug) - Serbian Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic and Austrian Minister of Economy Reinhold Mitterlehner signed in Vienna on Thursday a memorandum of understanding which is aimed at further promotion of economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two states.
The key sectors of cooperation envisaged by the memorandum are infrastructure, car industry, IT sector, electronics, banking, civil engineering, agriculture and food industry, transport and logistics, environmental protection, renewable energy sources and other sectors. The memorandum envisages the improvement of concrete investment capacities, promotion of joint presence in the markets of other states, creation of favorable conditions for enlargement of trade, joint investments, investment cooperation, production cooperation, exchange of experience, professional development etc.
The memorandum envisages establishing of a joint expert commission for economic cooperation. The commission will have a working meeting once a year in order to analyze the general economic cooperation and possible problems that may appear in its realization.

DECLARATION ON CONDEMNATION OF SREBRENICA CRIME PROPOSED

BELGRADE, March 24 (Tanjug) - The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia most severely condemns the crime committed against the Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995 in the manner determined by the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and expects that other former Yugoslav states will condemn the crimes committed against Serbs in the same way, the preamble of the declaration on condemnation of Srebrenica crime reads.
The draft declaration was distributed on Wednesday to the whips in the Serbian parliament and journalists, and For a European Serbia whip Nada Kolundzija said that she does not expect any major changes of the text in the course of the parliamentary debate.
According to the announcements of Serbian parliament speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic the text of the declaration could be tabled at the parliament sitting on March 30 or 31. The preamble further reads that the Serbian parliament also condemns most severely all social and political processes and events which led to believing that national goals may be realized by the use of armed force and physical violence against the members of other nations and religions.
The declaration also includes the expression of sympathy and apology to the families of the victims given that nothing was done to prevent the tragedy. It is also said that the Serbian parliament offers support to the operation of the state organs which are in charge of the processing of war crimes and successful completion of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), particularly stressing the importance of the arrest of Ratko Mladic and his trial before the ICTY.
All parties that took part in the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and other states of the former Yugoslavia are urged to continue the process of reconciliation and strengthening of conditions for living together based on the equality of nations and full recognition of human and minority rights and freedoms so that such crimes would not happen again. "The Serbian parliament expects that the top organs of other countries on the territory of the former Yugoslavia will condemn the crimes committed against Serbs in the same manner and express their personal condolence and apology to the families of the Serb victim."

SUTANOVAC: DEFENSE INDUSTRY SHOULD NOT BE SOLD

VALJEVO, March 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said Wednesday that Serbia is the regional leader in production and export of weaponry and military equipment, and added that the country should not sell or privatize the domestic defense industry factories.
"A possible sale or privatization of these factories, which are of great strategic importance to the country, should not even be considered," Sutanovac said at a press conference in Valjevo. He pointed out that all the statistics show that Serbia's defense industry is the biggest exporter in the Balkans, and expressed expectations that contracts for a period of several years ahead, worth several hundred million euros, will be signed during the following months. According to him, the ministry wants the home defense industry to expand and be enabled to produce more sophisticated weaponry and military equipment.

CIRKOVIC: REGIONAL STABILITY IS MUTUAL GOAL OF VS AND SV

BELGRADE, March 25 (Tanjug) - The Armed Forces of Serbia (VS) and the Armed Forces of Slovenia (SV) have a mutual goal - to provide regional stability and contribute to safe and peaceful life of all citizens, Deputy Chief of General Staff of VS Lieutenant General Mladen Cirkovic stated on Thursday.
At a joint press conference held in Belgrade with his counterpart Deputy Chief of the General Staff of SV Brigadier Branimir Furlan, Cirkovic added that there is a number of fields that can be improved in the good cooperation between the two armies. Branimir Furlan stated that, when it comes to exchange of experience with the VS, the SV is interested in the fields of education and scientific-research activities, as well as exchanges at the expert level in different areas.

SLOVAKIAN PARTY APOLOGIZES TO SERBIA FOR BOMBING

BRATISLAVA, March 24 (Tanjug) - President and Vice-President of the Slovakian People's Party of the ruling coalition apologized Wednesday to Serbian Ambassador Danko Prokic for Slovakia's support to NATO air strikes on Serbia eleven years ago.
Slovakia's Democratic Christian Alliance, Christian Democratic Movement and the Hungarian Coalition Party supported NATO bombing campaign and approved flyovers of Slovakia's territory without authorization of the UN Security Council or Slovakia's people, the Slovakian People's Party Vice-President Ana Belousova said. She apologized also on behalf of Slovakian People's Party President Jan Slot. She noted that her party could do nothing but protest when NATO started bombing Serbia on March 24, 1999.

JELASIC: MACROECONOMIC STABILITY NOT IN DANGER

BELGRADE, March 24 (Tanjug) - Resigned Governor of the National Bank of Serbia Radovan Jelasic said Wednesday that his resignation will not jeopardize Serbia's macroeconomic stability or bring a fundamental change to the macroeconomic policy.
Jelasic told reporters at the Hyatt hotel in Belgrade, where he took part in a round table discussion on economy, that Serbia has a macroeconomic programme based on the budget and on an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who will visit at the end of May to check if the country is on the right track. Jelasic said that he met with Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic today to discuss how to preserve macroeconomic stability.
Commenting on the tendencies in the foreign exchange market after his resignation, Jelasic stated that the demand for foreign currency was increased on Tuesday, but added that the situation has calmed down today and should remain stable. Jelasic hopes that a new governor will be appointed relatively quickly, who will then complete the work on the new central bank bill in cooperation with the European Central Bank and the IMF, adding that the document is 90 percent complete.

SERBIA - EU

EU COORDINATION GROUP FOR WEST BALKAN ON VISIT TO SERBIA

BELGRADE, March 24 (Tanjug) - Members of the EU coordination group for the Western Balkans started on Wednesday a three-day visit to Serbia during which they will meet with top state officials, including Serbian President Boris Tadic and parliament speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejenovic.
The coordination group will confer with representatives of justice system, civil society and business circles. The goal of the visit, according to the statement of the EU delegation to Serbia, is to get a first-hand impression of Serbia's progress in the EU integration process and political and economic reforms, and to discuss Serbia's European perspective with state officials and independent organizations.
The sending of the mission to Serbia is motivated by considerable progress that Serbia made in 2009 and which resulted in the visa regime liberalization, enforcement of the Interim Trade Agreement and submission of the EU candidacy bid. The EU coordination group for the Western Balkans is composed of diplomats from the permanent representations of the EU member states in Brussels who are responsible for the policy coordination in the region. The mission that has arrived in Serbia is the first of the kind since 2000.M.

BRAMMERTZ, FULE TO DISCUSS TERMINATION OF ICTY OPERATION

THE HAGUE, March 25 (Tanjug) - International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz is scheduled to confer with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule in Brussels on Thursday on the strategy of termination of the ICTY operation and the cooperation between ICTY and the states, ICTY spokesperson Olga Kavran stated.
Brammertz will be in Brussels on Thursday where he is to meet with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, Kavran told a press conference. According to Kavran, the Thursday meeting is one of the regular working meetings with the ICTY chief prosecutor.

FERHAGEN: EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON BRAMMERTZ'S NEW REPORT

BELGRADE, March 25 (Tanjug) - Dutch Foreign Minister Maxim Ferhagen said that Serbia's further progress in European integration will not be on the agenda before Hague Tribunal Prosecutor Serge Brammertz submits his next report in June. The position of the Netherlands remains unchanged in principle.
Last December we responded to Brammertz's positive report by approving the implementation of the Interim Trade Agreement. At the same time, I insisted during my visit to Belgrade that Serbia fully exploit this positive development and take concrete steps to find Ratko Mladic, Ferhagen said in an interview published in the Thursday edition of the daily Vecernje novosti. We will consider this matter again in June when Brammetz's next report is due, Ferhagen added.
We will decide based on that report when the ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) will start. Asked when the Council of Ministers will ask the European Commission to start drafting its opinion on Serbia's bid for EU candidate status, Ferhagen said this could not be discussed before the SAA is ratified.

FULE: DEMARCATION OF BORDERS PART OF REGIONAL COOPERATION

BELGRADE, March 25 (Tanjug) - The issue of borders demarcation is part of good-neighborly relations and regional cooperation, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule has said, pointing out that it is important for every country which tends to enter the European Union, parallel with preparations for European integrations, to deal with bilateral issues.
The issue of borders demarcation is part of good-neighborly relations and regional cooperation and it is a process which depends only on the countries from the region and should be solved bilaterally, Fule told the Belgrade daily Danas, adding that this does not refer only to Serbia.
Fule stressed that regional cooperation and good-neighborly relations are components of European values, adding that it is natural to expect that they are adopted by the states which want to enter the EU. These are bilateral problems and they have to be solved by interested parties. This especially refers to the Western Balkans, the region which walked out from destructive wars that left many unsolved problems behind as well as many unfinished businesses that should be dealt with.

SAMARDZIC CONFERS WITH EU OFFICIALS ON SERBIA'S YOUTH POLICY

BELGRADE, March 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian Minister of Youth and Sport Snezana Samardzic-Markovic met with EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou, as well as with Director for Western Balkans in European Commission's Directorate General for Enlargement Pierre Mirel, in Brussels, the ministry said in a release.
During the meeting with the EU Commissioner Vassiliou, Samardzic spoke about Serbia's youth policy, which is aimed at associating young people from the country with the European trends and solving the country's unemployment problem. Samardzic said that Serbia's young people are being acquainted with European trends by raising their awareness through better and more up to date information. Vassiliou assessed the results Serbia's Ministry of Youth and Sport achieved during the two and a half years since its foundation as excellent, the release says.
At the meeting with Pierre Mirel, Samardzic thanked the director for the support Serbia has received so far, and presented ideas for further cooperation. Mirel said that Serbia made a genuine progress, which is proven by the fact that the positive progress report about Serbia's EU integration received good reviews.

KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

SWITZERLAND TO END PENSION PAYOUT TO PEOPLE IN KOSOVO

PRISTINA, March 25 (Tanjug) - The Swiss government has decided not to continue the agreement on social insurance with Kosovo, which is to expire on April 1 and this decision will hit 170,000 people in Kosovo who are working in Switzerland.
The Swiss government has decided not to continue the agreement on social insurance without previous talks or announcements, the largest Swiss union UNIA published on its website. This implies that the people from Kosovo may receive pensions only if they stay to live in Switzerland.
If they return to Kosovo, they will lose right to pension. The Swiss government justified its decision not to continue the agreement by the difficulties in determining the health condition of those living in Kosovo who receive the disabled persons' pensions.