Belgrade, 29. 01. 2010.

serbia

• TADIC: CHURCH HAS IMPORTANT PLACE IN SERBIA'S SOCIETY
• HELP FOR HAITIANS
• DULIC: ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIONS AND LAWS PROVE EFFICIENT
• WASHINGTON'S SUPPORT TO WEST BALKANS
• DEVIL'S TOWN AWARDED GRAND PRIX IN TRIESTE
• IMF FORECASTS HIGH GROWTH OF SERBIA'S ECONOMY BY 2012

• ETHIOPIA REFUSES TO ISSUE VISAS TO KOSOVO OFFICIALS
• IVANOVIC: SERBIA WILL BE ABLE TO SOLVE ISSUE OF KIM WHEN IT JOINS EU
• EULEX TO IMPLEMENT STRATEGY AFTER OPENING OF EU OFFICE
• FEITH, KERMABON AT NATO HQ TODAY

BELGRADE, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic said Thursday at a meeting with the new Serbian Patriarch Irinej that the church has a very important place in Serbia's society.

The president and the patriarch conferred on the situation of the Serbian Orthodox Church priests and monks in Kosovo-Metohija and on the protection of cultural heritage, Tadic's office said.

BELGRADE, Jan 29 (Tanjug) - The Red Cross of Serbia has so far paid in more than RSD 5 million (EUR1 = RSD 98) in the name of the humanitarian aid for the endangered people of Haiti after the destructive earthquake.

The organization reminded that, having in mind the dramatic humanitarian situation and the needs of the people, the decision of the International Red Cross to keep collecting the money in Europe is still being enforced in order to help Haiti. The aim is to provide efficacy and speed in giving help to the endangered people, and to avoid high expenditures on the aid's shipment," the Red Cross stated.

BELGRADE, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - Serbia's very good ranking as 29th of 163 countries of the world in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is in great part due to the efforts for implementation of many laws in the field of environmental protection, Serbian Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic said.

Dulic told Tanjug that such a good ranking is also a result of the big environmental action called "Let's Clean up Serbia", during which almost half of the landfills in Serbia have been cleaned up. Looking back on the EPI preliminary report, presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, according to which Serbia is environmentally healthier than most countries in the region, except Albania which is rated as 23rd, the minister said that the implementation of stricter environmental inspection and the agreement with the industry to implement the latest standards proved very important.

"We will have to work hard to improve the rating in the coming years. In 2010 we will introduce a system for management not only of communal waste, but of special waste flows as well, which should resolve the environmental issues in Serbia," said Dulic.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Stuart Jones has stated that all the West Balkan countries that want to join the Euro-Atlantic community can count on Washington's wholehearted support and help.

Pointing out that the policy of US President Barack Obama's Administration is not to exert pressure on any country, Jones said that, when it comes to relations between Belgrade and Washington, it is necessary to find a means for specific cooperation with the aim of a better life of Serbs and Albanians.

According to Jones, the most important thing is the progress made in the US-Serbia relations after the visit of US Vice-President Joseph Biden to the region in May 2009. Biden said that the US and Serbia should put aside their disagreements regarding Kosovo and devote to a better mutual understanding, shared goals and cooperation in the region, Jones said in an interview for the Voice of America.

Pointing out that Serbia and the US having different opinions on Kosovo is the main obstacle for closer cooperation between the two countries, the US official said that Washington believes that Kosovo's independence is irreversible, but that they accept the different position of Belgrade. Belgrade has a different position - that Kosovo is still a part of Serbia. At the end we will have to find a solution, Jones said. Concerning the dispute on northern part of Kosovo, Jones said that the US would support neither the division nor any extreme circumstances.

BELGRADE, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - The Serbian film Djavolja Varos (Devil's Town) of director and screenwriter Vladimir Paskaljevic won the first prize in the main competitive program of the 21. International Film Festival in Trieste, the producer of the film, Milan Tomic, stated on Thursday.

The explanation of the jury said that the movie Devil's Town was awarded for the audacity and clarity of the young director's vision that displays a city forsaken by the gods through precise mounting and excellent direction. The International Film Festival in Trieste gathers the movies of Central and Eastern Europe, while 12 films entered the main competitive part.

The first film of young Paskaljevic started its successful festival life at Karlovy Vary early in July where it had a noted world premiere. Early in November, it was presented with FIPRESCI awarded by film critiques for the best movie in Athens, and a week ago it won a special recognition of the jury at the festival in Palm Springs, California.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - The experts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have forecasted in the latest analysis of the economic trends in Serbia, that high economic growth in the country should not be expected before 2012.By that time, according to the data published on the IMF website, the Serbian economy can count on a moderate and gradual growth, while the IMF experts predict stagnation of demand and export in 2010 that could slightly increase in 2011 if the incipient recovery of the global demand takes place.

The monetary authorities in Serbia will have to balance risks in the forthcoming period due to the expected growth of inflation with the influence of the arranged freezing of salaries and pensions, the IMF underscores, adding that the government's program of support to the financial sector contributed to the preservation of financial stability. However, the IMF warns that the government should pay special attention to all risks that are threatening for the macro-economic stability due to the mentioned and other risks. The analysis says that the measures that have been used by the monetary authorities so far for reaching the target inflation have proved successful no matter the constant trend of "eradication".

The IMF said that the fiscal deficit target for 2009 and 2010 of 4.5 and 4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are relatively high. The strict measures that were taken in 2009 with the aim of deficit covering should be implemented this year as well, primarily the freezing of salaries and pensions, while the savings realized by additional measures, such as reduction of public administration, will be achieved only in the long run.

BELGRADE, ADDIS ABABA, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - The Ethiopian authorities refused to issue visas to the Kosovo delegation, headed by Foreign Minister Skender Hiseni, so the delegation did not arrive in Addis Ababa to the session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU).

As Tanjug learned from the Serbian Foreign Ministry Thursday, the Kosovo delegation requested the Ethiopian authorities to issue visas to them, but they were rejected as the Ethiopian government does not recognize Kosovo passports.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic is paying a two-day visit to Ethiopia where he is taking part in the Executive Council of the African Union, and he will hold a number of bilateral meetings with heads of delegations of the African Union member states, it was said in the statement.

BELGRADE, Jan 29 (Tanjug) - State Secretary at the Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Oliver Ivanovic assessed that, when it becomes a EU member, Serbia will be in a stronger position for the solving of the KiM issue in its own favor.

In an interview for the Novi Sad daily Dnevnik, Ivanovic said that the new economic and political atmosphere which will be created in Serbia by its EU membership will enable a historic agreement between the two sides. "If you ask me, this is the only way to reach a sustainable model for the solution to the national issue of Serbs and Albanians," Ivanovic said, pointing out that the Kosovo Albanians and Serbia will not reach an agreement on their own until the EU membership is a certain future.

Only after joining the EU did Cyprus obtain a possibility to resolve its open territorial issues in a sustainable way, therefore the rights and obligations imposed by the EU will not be applied to KiM until its final status is determined, he stressed. "Only this will change the current extremely rigid position of Albanians, but it will also make Serbia think of a very inventive solution to the status of its southern province," Ivanovic underscored.

When asked whether this means that the citizens will soon have to be told that Serbia will not join the EU with Kosovo as its autonomous province, Ivanovic said that people will have to be made clear about this. "After all, in 2003, when Vojislav Kostunica was president, we accepted the double track principle, and it was completely rational, taking into account that the interest of all of our citizens, regardless of where they live, is that Serbia should make progress rather than wait buried in a trench," Ivanovic said.

PRISTINA, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - EULEX will start implementing specific tasks envisaged in the strategy for the north only after the opening of a European Union office in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Koha Ditore writes Thursday.

The office will cover all EU mechanisms in northern Kosovo, while EULEX will facilitate access of other EU mechanisms in that part of the province, the paper writes. EULEX will thus start implementing specific tasks envisaged in the strategy for the north without any need for taking a stand on them or for official requests or guidelines from Brussels, international officials told the paper. The strategy was drafted by International Civil Office (ICO) head Peter Feith and the Kosovo interim government and conceived as part of the decentralization process in Kosovo-Metohija with the goal of taking over control of northern Kosovska Mitrovica. This should be done in a way that would allow Belgrade to save face, and make it finally halt its support to parallel structures along with getting closer to integration in the European Union, Feith's document says. The opening of an EU office in Kosovska Mitrovica is envisaged in the strategy for the north.

PRISTINA, Jan 29 (Tanjug) - European Union special representative in Kosovo Peter Feith and EULEX Chief Gen. Yves de Kermabon on Friday will be at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Pristina press report quoting their diplomatic sources in NATO.

According to the press, they will take part in an informal meeting with the NATO Council and will focus on cooperation between the EU and NATO in the field and the situation in the north of Kosovo. The visit comes after the meeting of the NATO military leadership, who had discussed Kosovo. At a two-day meeting of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, chiefs of general staff of the NATO member states and countries that have their troops in KFOR had evaluated as successful the transformation of KFOR into a mission of conflict prevention in Kosovo.

The KFOR transition into a (conflict) prevention mission was evaluated as successful, it was said in a statement released after the meeting. We informed the states about the present development of the project for the Security Force of Kosovo and funds for the force, it was also said.