REPUBLIC OF SERBIA – MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

 SOLANA AND FEITH AGREE NO NEED FOR ELECTIONS IN 2009

SERBIA

JEREMIC AND BILDT ON SERBIA’S INTEGRATIONS WITH EUROPE

STOCKHOLM, Jan 20 (Tanjug) - Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic conferred with Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt during his visit to Sweden, and Serbia’s integrations with Europe and the obstacles along that pathway were discussed. EU ministers are permanently discussing different issues, primarily the question of European integration processes, in particular those of Serbia, and there is readyness to see that process continue, Bildt said, as carried by Radio and Television of Serbia. The topic at the talks with the Serbian foreign minister were ways to promote the cooperation with Serbia over the coming months, in particular once Sweden takes over the EU Presidency, Bildt was quoted as saying. The EU Presidency will this year be held by two states that are amicably disposed towards the Balkans and the EU enlargement - the Czech Republic and then Sweden, Jeremic said. Serbia is preparing for a political meeting with the EU in Brussels next week, and the talks with Bildt covered possibilities for Serbia strengthening its position. Ways should be found to overcome the topical problems, the Serbian FM said after his meeting with Minister Bildt.

CVETKOVIC CONCERNED OVER DEVELOPMENTS IN NOVI PAZAR

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - Premier Mirko Cvetkovic met with Ministers Ljajic and Ugljanin to express concern over the incidents which took place in Novi Pazar over the weekend. Cvetkovic said he was worried by the fact that during the incident force was used, firearms were applied and citizens injured. He demanded from the corresponding organs to determine all the facts and find the perpetrators. It is not good that an essentially real estate dispute is being transformed into a political problem and cause of instability and riots, Cvetkovic stated. He demanded from the institutions of the system to act in keeping with the law, in an unbiased and conscientious way, and to make the corresponding decisions to resolve the dispute, the Serbian government’s public relations office announced. Cvetkovic set out that the curent situation in Novi Pazar is calm and under control and called on the citizens and political subjects to contribute to calming down the situation.

DEBATE RESUMES, CHURCHES EXEMPTED FROM PAYING TAXES

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - The Serbian parliament resumed the debate on the amendments to the proposed changes of the Law on republic administrative taxes, regulating new taxes that were in the competency of the State Union on Serbia and Montenegro, and increasing other republic taxes. Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic stated that the government accepts the amendment tabled by MP from the DSS Nikola Lazic, under which churches and religious communities, registered in keeping with the law, are exempted from paying administrative taxes. Lazic tabled the amendment stating that last time churches and traditional religious communities had been taxed was during the Ottoman rule, and his amendment was backed by parliament members from the SRS and the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians. Parliament mbrs from opposition parties criticized the amendments to the law, stating that it is aimed at increasing taxes, which will be an additional burden for the citizens.

DACIC: WE ARE WORKING WITH FOREIGN AGENCIES ON MLADIC HUNT

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Beta) - Serbia is closely cooperating with Western intelligence agencies in locating the most wanted Hague fugitive, Mladic, but it is still not known where he is, stated Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic. The Netherlands is refusing to support closer ties between Serbia and the European Union until Mladic is arrested. Dacic told Reuters that Mladic and other Hague fugitive Goran Hadzic are "an excuse for blackmailing Serbia." "We are cooperating well with foreign agencies in locating war criminals on the run," said Dacic and added that "some of the searches in the last few years were based on information received from foreign intelligence agencies, but that the information had turned out to be erroneous." Dacic emphasized that the Serbian authorities remain determined to put an end to the war crimes issue. "We are checking information on their helpers," said Dacic, adding that the two fugitives should "peacefully surrender since the country is their virtual hostage." CULTURAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT SIGNED BETWEEN SERBIA & INDIA

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Beta) - Serbian Minister of Culture Nebojsa Bradic and Indian Ambassador to Serbia Ajay Swarup signed a cultural cooperation program between the two countries. The program stems from the Agreement on cooperation in culture, education and sports of the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the government of the Republic of India, which was signed on Sept. 20, 2002, and was valid until March 28, 2008. The program involves the direct cooperation of cultural institutions, exchange programs in the fields of music, theater, visual arts, literature, translation and publishing, the cooperation of libraries, archives, institutions for protecting cultural heritage, broadcasters, news agencies and other public information services. Ambassador Swarup said that the signed program will allow cultural cooperation between Serbia and India to be better organized in the future and will include a greater number of cultural institutions in process. Nebojsa Bradic and his aide for international cooperation, Branislav Dimitrijevic, said that international promotion of Serbia in the world and the presentation of foreign cultures to the Serbian public is one of the Ministry of Culture’s priorities in 2009. Dimitrijevic said international cooperation will be concentrated on with countries in the region, European Union countries, as well as large countries in the world such as India, Russia, the U.S. and China, with which a bilateral cultural cooperation agreement was also signed recently. PAJTIC ON DIFFERENT VIEWS ON DECENTRALISATION

NOVI SAD, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - President of the Vojvodina Executive Council Bojan Pajtic reiterated that the new statute and law on the province’s jurisdictions would be adopted at the same time, and blamed certain ministers of the Serbian government of being responsible for the stall in that respect."The process of harmonisation between the representatives of the provincial and state bodies is being relized in a relatively successful manner, we do not have any problems with some of the ministers, but certain ministers have a different view on the decentralisation and regionalisation issue," he added in a statement for the press. According to him, Ministers from Vojvodina Dulic, Dragin and Ciplic have shown an understanding for the documents, whereas "some other" officials had qualified the issue of decentralisation and regionalisation as "problematic." "However, I expect that complete work will be finalized very soon and that both documents, which are of vital importance for Vojvodna, will soon be presented to the members of the parliament," Pajtic concluded.

MUNTER: US & ITS NEW PRESIDENT WILL CONTINUE ASSISTING SERBIA

BELGRADE, Jan 20 (Tanjug) - US Ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter has said that the United States and its new President Barack Obama will continue to encourage Serbia’s prosperity, back the country on its path leading to the EU and NATO, boost democracy and contribute to the stability of Serbia. We will assist in the strengthening of bilateral and multilateral partnership relations by supporting Serbia on its European Union pathway, its participation in the NATO Partnership for Peace programme and bilateral military cooperation with the Ohio National Guard, Munter said in a text for daily Politika. The US ambassador said that the United States would also assist Serbia by providing a better economic climate, new investments, growth in the economic sector, by contributing to the strengthening of independent judiciary and parliament, and by promoting a more transparent political and electoral system, a stronger civil sector and independent media. Assessing that the relations between Serbia and the US have been expanded, that they are multidimensional and, for most of the part, successful, he added that in spite of the fact that the relations had still been burdened with a dispute over Kosovo, that fact should not cast a shadow on what was generally a good relationship. The US support for independent Kosovo will not change with the arrival of the new administration, he assessed. We therefore have to accept the fact that we disagree over one issue and at the same time, we have to continue boosting our constructive partnership which will be to the benefit of Serbia, Munter evaluated.

SERBIA – ECONOMY

TADIC: BUDGET REBALANCE POSSIBLE RESPONSE TO CRISIS BELGRADE, Jan 20 (Tanjug) - President Boris Tadic said evening that a rebalancing of the budget will be a possible answer of the state to the financial crisis, and announced that the functioning of public finances will be checked periodically throughout the year. "At times like these, you cannot adopt a budget today and say that the next one will come in a year’s time, but you must check the lap time every three months. I trust that we will not have to rebalance the budget, but in the event that there are negative indicators, this government, being responsible, will have to react in that way," Tadic said, speaking for Belgrade-based TV B92. Measures of state interventionism in the economy will be necessary in order for Serbia to overcome the consequences of the global financial crisis and a rebalancing of the budget should be seen as one of those measures, Tadic said. Tadic reiterated that the struggle for the preservation of jobs will be the most important task of the government in the conditions of the financial crisis, but pointed out that this does not mean those whose jobs are fictitious will get to keep them, which primarily pertains to the state administration.

DINKIC: SERBIA SHOULD SUE RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

VIENNA, Jan 20 (Tanjug) - The Republic of Serbia should file a lawsuit against Russia and Ukraine over the gas crisis, because we have signed a contract on gas supply with Russia, and Ukraine is responsible for the halt in the shipments, Serbian deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economy, Dinkic, said. At the sidelines of the Euromoney Central and Eastern European Forum in Vienna, Dinkic explained to journalists that in order to reach their own mutual agreement, Russia and Ukraine had cast the entire Balkans into huge energy uncertainty. I think this is a very irresponsible act, Dinkic said. What is irresponsible is that Russia did this in January when temperatures reach their lowest values, he said, pointing out that had the country wished to prove to Ukraine that it should pay a higher price, and do that so that the state, and not the people suffered the consequences, it should have turned off the taps in the summer. Had this been the case, only industry would have experienced the negative effects, the deputy prime minister underlined. In his opinion, we should first try to resolve the issue of compensation loss directly with Russia and Ukraine, and if this proves to be a failure, we should file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice.

DINKIC: CREDITING ECONOMY, LOWER INTEREST RATES ARE NECESSARY

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic requested from seven largest banks in Serbia to be the partners of the government and National Bank of Serbia (NBS) in the provision of sufficient funds for the crediting of the economy in crisis, which would include a drop in the interest rates. After the end of his meeting with bankers, Dinkic said that three major goals should be achieved this year - to maintain a 3.5 percent economic growth through appropriate loans, to maintain and reduce wherever possible the unemployment rate and to ensure export stimulation, which could not be done without banks. Banks secured 3.8 billion euros of loans for the economy last year, which will not be possible this year and the state will have to help, the minister said and added that a partnership between the central bank, government and commercial banks was more necessary than ever. He said that three models for securing funds, which would be implemented as of February, had been reviewed and the aim is to use some other government and NBS measures to compensate the country’s credit risk, which now amounts to three percentage points in the interest rate. Under the first model, the Development Fund should ensure one half of the envisaged 20 billion dinars and the other should be secured by commercial banks, and interest rates on loans should be maximum five to six percent a year. Under the second model, the government should adopt a special programme with the support of the central bank for the reduction of interest rates on the crediting funds that originate from banks’ own sources and the third relies of foreign funds in such a way that the government draw a loan and ensure 480 million euros for the crediting of small and medium enterprises. Serbia should take 250 million from the European Investment Bank, 100 million from the German Development Bank, another 100 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and there is an approved credit line from the Italian government at the amount of 30 million euros. Dinkic said that possibilities were reviewed for reducing the interest rates through a combination of several mechanisms - state guarantees to banks for the repayment of loans with the participation of the Guarantee Fund of Serbia, use of the budget funds and NBS measures were also important, in view of the fact that the reduction of the referent interest rate was expected on the model of the European Central Bank. Dinkic said that the obligation of companies that receive loans would be to keep the same number of employees or increase it and exporters would have the advantage, although the definition of exporters would be expanded to include all those who export more than 50 percent of production (as opposed to 70 % so far) and earn more than two million euros from exports.

DINKIC: GAS PRICE INCREASE UNACCEPTABLE

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Beta) - Minister of Economy Dinkic said that an increase in the price of natural gas is unacceptable in the present circumstances. He told journalists that the operational problems of Srbijagas should be solved with loans from business banks. "It is inappropriate that now, when there is not enough gas, and when many companies are not working, gas is still becoming more expensive," said, adding that with state help, money should be secured for the liquidity of the public enterprise Srbijagas. In response to a journalist’s question of whether Serbia will file charges against Ukraine for halting deliveries of Russian gas, Dinkic said that this was under the jurisdiction of the Energy Ministry.

KOSOVO – METOHIJA

TADIC: FORMATION OF KOSOVO SECURITY FORCES UNACCEPTABLE

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Beta) - President Boris Tadic said the formation of the Kosovo Security Forces was unacceptable for Serbia and added that the demilitarization of Serbia’s southern province was the only way to ensure security for the people living there.In an interview with B92 TV, Tadic said Serbia must not give up the policy of defending its territorial integrity and continuing the EU integration process, adding that Belgrade needed to do everything in its power to achieve those two goals. According to Tadic, the Serbs in the province have right to be concerned over the announced formation of the Kosovo Security Forces, adding that he would insist that the forces be disbanded. The president said further that Serbia "has not digressed a millimeter" from its European path, but added that "there is no price for Kosovo." Tadic also said that making recognition of Kosovo conditional on European path was possible, but added that this had never been an issue thus far. Tadic went on to say that as president, he would never accept that, but rather would make every effort to discourage those who might possibly set such a condition. The president noted that, due to the changed international conditions, he could not promise that Serbia would receive the status of an EU candidate country in 2009, but added that the authorities should focus on the more certain processes, such as the inclusion of Serbia on the white Schengen list.

BOGDANOVIC: FORMING OF NEW ARMED FORCES UNNECESSARY

BELGRADE, Jan 20 (Tanjug) - Serbian Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanovic said on Tuesay that Serbia and Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are against the forming of any security forces, in particular monoethnic or uninational ones. "At this point, it is unnecessary to form new armed forces, when Kosovo is becoming a powder keg and when there are between 350,000 and 400,000 long barrels in Kosovo," Bogdanovic said, speaking for Belgrade-based RTV B92. The Kosovo authorities have announced that security forces comprising 2,500 active members and 800 reservists, armed with light weapons, will become operational on January 21. "There is no difference between these forces and the notorious UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army), which was just dressed up differently or removed its uniforms and handed over its duty to the Kosovo Protection Corps, which handed over its duty to the newly formed security forces of Kosovo," Bogdanovic said. Bogdanovic urged the demilitarization of the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija, because that is the only way in which adequate security can be established, not only in the territory of the southern Serbian province, but in the entire region as well. The minister announced that, in talks with the international community and the European Union (EU), Serbia will point out all the negative consequences of the forming of such security forces, and stress that this can only further aggravate the situation in Kosovo and Metohija.

KOSOVO SECURITY FORCES TO BECOME OPERATIVE ON JAN. 21

PRISTINE, Jan 19 (Beta) - The Kosovo Protection Corps will cease to exist on Jan. 20 and will be replaced by the new Kosovo Security Forces immediately after midnight on Jan. 21. The new forces have 2,500 active members and 800 reservists. Apart from chief commander Sulejman Selimi, it is not yet known who will make up the chain of command. The Pristina media have announced that all generals will remain in the forces, apart from Kosovo Guard commander Nuredin Lushtaku, who has allegedly refused to be part of the Kosovo Security Forces. At the same time, Lushtaku’s move is said to have been forced, because complaints about his work had been coming not only from his superiors, but also from representatives of the international community, with whose backing and consent the new forces are being put together. Late last week, a news release said that in the Ministry for the Kosovo Security Forces, which is in charge of the forces, would be a member of the Serb community. "The Kosovo government wants one of the two deputy ministers for the Kosovo Security Forces to be from the Serb community. We believe the prime minister will appoint that deputy minister when the representatives of Serb parliamentary parties submit their proposal," Minister for the Kosovo Security Forces Fahmi Mujota said. Mujota added that the interest of minority members in involvement in the Kosovo Security Forces was satisfactory and that the projected 10 percent of members from minority communities would be achieved.

SEJDIU: KOSOVO PROTECTION CORPS WAS SUCCESSFUL MISSION

PRISTINE, Jan 19 (Beta) - Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu visited the Kosovo Protection Corps’ main headquarters and gave a medal to corps commander, soon to become Kosovo Security Forces commander, Gen. Sulejman Selimi. Sejdiu said that the Kosovo Protection Corps had achieved excellent results and laid good foundations for a new Kosovo army. "You came out of a war that was imposed, out of great destruction and numerous consequences that are equal to severe trauma for many Kosovo citizens. You were an important partner in all possible institutional forms of cooperation. You proved best how one can work for the wellbeing of all Kosovo citizens," the president said. Sulejman Selimi said that Jan. 19 was a highly emotional day for him, because he was leaving the institution he had served in for the past 10 years. SCHEFFER: NATO IS READY TO DISCUSS LIFTING OF SAFETY ZONE NATO

BRUSSELS, Jan 19 (Beta) - Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated that he is ready to consider lifting the military safety zone around Kosovo, if the Serbian authorities were to propose it. In regard to the nofly zone over Kosovo, "if Serbia wanted to submit a proposal in connection with that, I would be willing to consider it," said Scheffer at the traditional New Year’s reception for accredited journalists in NATO headquarters. "I have yet to see these proposals, but if Serbia wants it so much, there is willingness within NATO to look into it," he said. He added that "cooperation between EULEX and KFOR is well organized" and that each has "their own responsibilities and roles." Scheffer, however, made it known that the "situation in Kosovo is sensitive and complicated and it is required that we resolve the situation there step by step."Scheffer then, in an informal discussion with journalists, said that he understands the dissatisfaction of Belgrade and people in Serbia "that KFOR was given the task of training Kosovo’s security forces." He added, however, that it is "much better that professional forces under democratic control are in charge of security issues" rather than it still being entrusted to groups such as the Kosovo Protection Corps. The NATO SecGen emphasized that "it would be very good if Kosovo’s security forces were an essentially multiethnic formation, if a certain number of Kosovo Serbs were present within it." Scheffer said he did not think that changes to Serbia’s military would have consequences in regard to the future relations between Belgrade and the Atlantic alliance, and added that "both NATO and President Tadic are conducting a pragmatic policy" in mutual ties. SOLANA AND FEITH AGREE NO NEED FOR ELECTIONS IN 2009

PRISTINA, Jan 20 ( Tanjug ) - EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and EU Special Representative in Kosovo Pieter Feith have agreed that it would be good if in 2009 there were to be no general elections in Kosovo, daily in Albanian language Zeri reports. The paper says that after a careful consideration of this issue, Brussels has reached a conclusion that due to certain political and economic reasons, it would be good if no general elections were held in Kosovo during 2009. One of the main reasons for this position of the highest EU officials, as Zeri reports, is related to the privatization of public companies (Kosovo Energy Corporation, Post and Telecom of Kosovo, Pristina Airport) and the termination of the tender for the election of a consortium which would build an electric power plant, the power of which is expected to be as much as 2000 megawatts. The paper assessed that with this attitude the European officials have supported the stand of President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Tachi not to hold the elections this year.

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Minister for Foreign Affairs of Serbia