REPUBLIC OF SERBIA - MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

 MALISHEV - VOLUME OF INVESTMENTS IN 2009 IS BEING PLANNED

SERBIA

TADIC: SITUATION UNCHANGED IN SEARCH FOR MLADIC

BELGRADE, March 5 (Beta) - Boris Tadic stated that "the situation is unchanged" in the search for former Republika Srpska Army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, and that he will be arrested once he is located, B92 TV reported. "We get different information every day, the security services do that, but once the information is accurate enough to locate Ratko Mladic, he will be arrested," Tadic said. "As long as he is not arrested, it means that we have not crossed the critical point," he stressed. He denied reports about an agreement with the EU, according to which the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) would be unblocked if the second remaining tribunal fugitive, Goran Hadzic, is extradited, adding that there can be "no question" about that. The president also characterized as absolutely untrue the reports of some media that the Serbian authorities had requested the EU to withdraw Mladic’s extradition as a condition for the implementation of the SAA, if Hadzic is extradited to the tribunal.

PARLIAMENT SPEAKER MEETS UNDP DELEGATION

BELGRADE, March 5 (Beta) - Serbian Parliament Speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic on March 5 met with representatives of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) and discussed mutual cooperation and projects whose realization is being helped by the UNDP, it was announced from the parliament. The UNDP delegation was made up of UNDP Regional Director for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Kori Udovicki, Assistant Director Dmitri Mariasin, and Western Balkans team leader Moises Venancio. The parliament speaker assessed the cooperation with UNDP as useful and expressed belief that the implementation of the programs will contribute to the development of parliamentary democracy in Serbia. UNDP high official Kori Udovicki underlined that she appreciates the cooperation with the parliament, adding that the organization will continue supporting those activities which aim at improving the parliament’s work, it was stated in the announcement.

HEAD OF OSCE MISSION SATISFIED WITH SERBIA’S PROGRESS

VIENNA, March 5 (Tanjug) - Head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Serbia Hans Ola Urstad expressed in Vienna on Thursday his satisfaction with Serbia’s progress, pointing out that in times of the global economic crisis Serbia cannot afford elections. I am encouraged by President Boris Tadic’s statement that there is no initiative for holding early elections, Urstad said, adding that in times of the global crisis Serbia could not afford elections. These words coming from Tadic are very important for the citizens who wish for peace and stability, he stressed. After adressing the OSCE Permanent Council, Urstad told the reporters that the cooperation with Serbian authorities is good and that the Serbian government has never been more stable in eight years that he has been living in that country - five years as Norwegian ambassador and another three as Head of OSCE mission. The Norwegian diplomat expressed his expectation that the current government will withstand the whole of its term. Urstad particularly appraised the cooperation between the OSCE mission with Serbian Interior Ministry ever since the new government took office. He criticized the Serbian Radical Party’s obstruction in the National parliament, expressing his belief that this problem will be overcome with the implementation of the new Rules of Procedure, which ought to enable the parliament to do its job - adopt laws.

REGIONAL COOPERATION BALKANS’ FASTEST WAY TO EU

BELGRADE, March 5 (Beta) - The Western Balkans are high on the waiting list of countries for EU membership and one of the priorities set by the Czech presidency, and the fastest way to achieve that is through regional cooperation, Czech Ambassador in Belgrade Hana Hubackova stated on March 5. "Regional cooperation is very useful, mostly because it represents a good basis for talks about all problematic and other issues, and when it comes to the Visegrad group, it does not imply agreement regarding all matters," Hubackova said at the second session of the working group Regional Cooperation of the National Convention on the EU. Slovak Ambassador in Belgrade Igor Furdik underlined that Europe is not a geographical term, but a new cultural and political space which best reflects a variety of types of cooperation. He added that "nothing (can be) made one on one," and that one of Serbia’s and the Western Balkans’ basic problems is that all forms of regional cooperation have been initiated from without, and they did not reflect the internal political will of the region. Commenting on the question of regional cooperation between the Western Balkan countries, president of the European Movement in Serbia Zivorad Kovacevic stressed that the most important factor in the region is precisely the aspiration toward Eurointegration. In that sense, he assessed that "every regional country should accept reality and stop setting unresolved internal political or bilateral issues as a condition for cooperation." "Serbia must accept the fact that 22 out of 27 EU members have recognized Kosovo... and it must not set the question of Kosovo as a condition for regional cooperation or Eurointegration, just as other countries should be aware that Serbia will never give up its territorial integrity and recognize Kosovo," Kovacevic said.

CE: SERBIA AT TOP OF LIST OF WOMAN AMBASSADORS

PARIS, March 6 (Tanjug) - Women in Serbia are still poorly represented in state and public institutions, but our country is at the top of the list regarding the number of woman ambassadors which the Council of Europe (CE) member countries have, says a report which the CE, seated in Strasbourg, issued on Thursday. Although in most CE member states diplomacy continues to be in the hands of men - of its total of 138 ambassadors, Russia has only one woman ambassador, Germany has 10 women appointed as ambassadors (6.4 percent), and Greece has none - Serbia, with its 39 percent of woman ambassadors, is at the top of the list, and it is followed by Sweden with 29 and Finland with 25.7 percent of such ambassadors. Serbia is also well ranked when it comes to the number of Supreme Court female judges (46.7 percent), while the average percentage among the CE member countries is only 27.6. Serbia is one of the five countries, along with Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland and Montenegro, in which the Supreme Court is presided by a woman. The report, however, says that Serbia has a very small number of women appointed to ministerial positions (16 percent) and those working in the parliament (21.6 percent), which is below the 40 percent minimum recommended by this European organisation.

FOREIGN COUNTRIES ALLOWED TO ACQUIRE PROPERTY

BELGRADE, March 5 (Tanjug) - Serbia’s Constitutional Court evaluated on Thursday that the constitutional provision of the Law on the Elements of Property Law Relations which enacts that foreign countries can acquire property in buildings, apartments and construction sites for the purposes of diplomatic and consular premises. The court refused to accept several initiatives for starting the procedure to determine the unconstitutionality of this provision. Constitutional Court Judge Marija Draskic stated that the disputed provision envisages that foreign countries, organizations and UN Specialized Agencies, are allowed to purchase buildings and apartments for the purposes of diplomatic and consular premises, as well as building sites for the construction of those facilitites, with a previous approval from the federal organ authorized for legal affairs. The Constitution of Serbia envisages that foreign civil and legal entities are equalized with the domestic entities on the market and that they can acquire real estate property pursuant to the law or the international agreement.

SERBIA – INTERIOR MINISTER CONFERENCE

TADIC: FIERCE FIGHT AGAINST CRIME BEFORE US

BELGRADE, March 5 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Thursday that the "most fierce and most complex" fight would be launched against organised crime in this decade. Opening the 6th ministerial conference on border security cooperation in South-East Europe, Tadic pointed out that Serbia would engage all of its national resources to fight organised crime. Our efforts gave results in the very first months of the government’s work, but this battle will not mean anything if the neighboring countries do not fight crime with the same intensity as well, President Tadic said. According to him, the decriminalisation of the South East Europe society is not possible without the support of the EU, its institutions and capacities. Serbia’s objective to join the EU is no more important than its goal to destroy the crime in our country, to build our infrastructure, or to achieve the rule of law, he said. Only once we have achieved these aims shall we want to become a member of the EU, but in order to achieve all this, we need the EU to help us, Tadic said. As he pointed out, the societies in the region are faced with a profound reform process, which also implies a reform of the system of value, both in respect to the citizens and the institutions of the state.

DACIC: BIGGEST CONFERENCE IN LAST 10 YEARS

BELGRADE, March 5 (Beta) - Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic on March 5 stated that Belgrade will utilize the fact that it is hosting the Sixth Ministerial Conference on cooperation in the field of border security to show how much it has done in the process of European integrations. "This is one of the biggest international conferences held in Belgrade in perhaps more than 10 years. There are more than 350 participants from 30 countries, as well as representatives from 16 international organizations and eight ministers of the interior," Dacic told BETA. He added that the topic of the conference is border security, which is very significant for the regional path toward the EU. "It will largely determine the way toward visa liberalization, and the candidacy of regional countries for the EU in general," he said. Dacic expressed satisfaction that ministers of the interior had accepted his invitation, underlining that it is a confirmation of the successful cooperation in the past year.

TRUSCINSKI: VISA REGIME LIBERALIZATION POSSIBLE SOON

BELGRADE, March 6 (Beta) - The liberalization of the visa regime between the European Union and Serbia, as well as other regional countries, could happen very soon, European Commission representative Jan Truscinski said on March 5 in Belgrade. Truscinski, who is the deputy general director of the European Commission’s expansion directorate, said that daily the commission was carefully analyzing the results of tasks which the region’s countries are carrying out and that Brussels was ready to help. Speaking at the sixth ministerial conference on cooperation in the field of border security in Southeastern Europe, held in the Palace of Serbia, he highlighted the importance of the fight against corruption and organized crime. Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer, whose country holds the European Union presidency, emphasized that in regard to visa regime liberalization, positive messages were being received from the European Commission’s experts. "We are supporting you and we will help with everything we can. I am sure that we will soon be part of a joint European space," said Langer. Bulgarian Interior Minister Mihail Mikov said during his speech that democratic reforms were dependent on border security and the fight against organized crime. In his words, cooperation in those fields protects the so-called third pillar of security in Europe, because of which it is important to introduce a network of officers who would coordinate the work among countries. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni recalled that one of the main problems for European countries is the smuggling of drugs, which come via Africa from South America and are then distributed in Europe. He also emphasized the importance of fighting illegal migration. The Balkans, according to him, are a very important and strategic area for the whole of Europe, because of which cooperation in the supply of intelligence and cooperation with Europol are of great significance. The conference at the Palace of Serbia was continued behind closed doors. The sixth ministerial conference on cooperation in the field of border security in Southeastern Europe will conclude on March 7. The signing of a ministerial declaration on border security for 2009 has been announced for March 6.

SERBIA MADE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS TOWARD WHITE SCHENGEN LIST

BELGRADE, March 5 (Tanjug) - Director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) Theodor Winkler told Tanjug on Thursday Serbia had made significant progress toward the white Schengen list, and pointed out that the chances were big for the country to fulfill the conditions required for the granting of the non-visa regime with the EU countries. It is not unrealistic to expect that the conditions will be fulfilled during the year, and significant progress has been made in that respect, Winkler said ahead of a ministerial conference on border security in South East Europe. The EU appreciates the evident effort Serbia has made to that effect and if this was not so, (European Enlargement) Commissioner Olli Rehn would not even mention the possibility of the non-visa regime, he said. He added that this conference, which was attended by the interior ministers of the region, Italy and the Czech Republic, a country which currently presides over the EU, represented still another proof that Serbia had made progress on the EU pathway.

SERBIA – ECONOMY, FINANCE

MALISHEV - VOLUME OF INVESTMENTS IN 2009 IS BEING PLANNED

MOSCOW, March 5 (Tanjug) - Chairman of the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) Managing Board Dmitry Malishev told Tanjug in an interview that the total value of the company’s investment for this year would be precisely determined soon and that it would directly depend on the results of the first tender for the purchase of equipment, called on March 2. "The preliminary analysis shows that up to 40 percent of all of the investment obligations could be made in 2009," said Malishev and added that the total investment was worth 550 million euros. "After reconstructing NIS’s oil refinery, where around four million tons of oil are refined, it will be possible to produce over seven million tons of quality oil, with around three million barrels available for export (one barrel = 159 litres)," Malishev said. He said that the main goal of the new managing team was to upgrade the technology and modernize production in the coming period. "These upgrades will enable the company to be competitive vis-à-vis the majority of European oil companies," Malishev said and added that most of the capital investments would refer to investments in the development of refinery capacity. "Our specialists are currently auditing NIS’s management structure," he said and added that this was very important in view of the challenges the company was facing. Asked by Tanjug to assess the prospects of NIS becoming a regional oil industry leader in South-East Europe, Malishev said that this goal was possible to achieve if it managed "to secure NIS’s efficient operations and high production quality." "These advantages will turn NIS not only into a leader in the energy market in Serbia, but also in the entire Balkan region," he said. "We are planning to produce European-grade oil products at NIS that meet the Euro-5 standard," he said. "This involves both preserving production volume and modernizing NIS’s wholesale network. This improvement is necessary for NIS at a moment when the Serbian energy market is being liberalised," he said. "We are confident that NIS products will become competitive both in terms of quality and price thanks to these upgrades," Malishev concluded.

For further information:

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Serbia