News from Serbia of 12 November 2010

DAILY SURVEY - Nr. 51 / 440 - Belgrade - Prepared by: Z. Bucin

- SERBIA

* TADIC: SALARIES CANNOT INCREASE AS LONG AS THERE IS CRISIS

BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic has stated that as long as there is crisis, which every citizen is deeply experiencing, everyone has to be patient and there can be no bigger salaries for the authorities. "That is why as long as there is crisis and as long as I am the president, neither I nor the prime minister or any other minister will receive a bigger salary, and measures of saving in all state institutions will be even more rigorous. As far as other employed Serbian citizens, I completely agree that their salaries should increase in accordance with possibilities," Tadic stated in an interview for the Friday issue of the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti. Tadic said that he is not completely satisfied with how the government is handling the economic crisis, even though "there is no doubt that, at one point, the government managed to prevent the economic breakdown that many other countries have suffered." "This is when a country admits that it is not able to fulfill its international financial obligations. Greece has experienced it, as well as Hungary, and many other countries. People nowadays live hard, but we earn as much as we produce. That was not the case earlier and we are paying the price now," Tadic said. Assessing that the government could have done a lot more, Tadic said that the time behind us should have been used for significant improvements in agricultural production. "There should have been much more progress in infrastructure and excuses such as those projects were late do not help, as it is obvious that the northern sections of Corridor 10 will not be built on schedule. The shortage of milk and oil is particularly disturbing for the citizens, as that reminds them citizens of the recent past, which is absolutely inadmissible. The work of inspection services and fight against corruption also prove that not enough effort is being made," Tadic stressed. He added that "someone will have to be held responsible, when this year ends and when the new budget is approved." "All coalition partners have to take responsibility. There is simply no sector without problems and it is clear that they are not being solved fast enough. That is why we all have to find ways how to fix things," Tadic underscored.

* TADIC: SERBIA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IS PRIORITY ISSUE

BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic stated that at the moment, the priority issues in Serbia are economic development and creation of new jobs, which have to be in the focus of the Serbian government. In an interview for the Friday edition of the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti, and commenting on the report by the European Commission on Serbia’s progress in the EU integration process, Tadic said that the report was not surprising to Serbia, as it specifies that the country has made progress, but that the dynamics in certain areas was insufficient. The political stability, economic atmosphere and relations in the region are qualified as good. However, the justice system reform is not as satisfying, primarily because the process of verification of all elected judges has not been completed, Tadic said. "It is important to reiterate that this (report) does not represent any kind of commandments, but rather instructions for all, since there are no better rules than the ones of Europe," Tadic said. He underlined that a great success of the government, and therefore of himself as well, is that the process of the EU integration has been unblocked. As for Kosovo, Tadic recalled that the Serbia-EU Resolution on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice has finally opened the possibility of a dialogue with Pristina. "This has been our goal from the very beginning, and all who have good intentions know that without that dialogue we cannot resolve the historic conflict or determine our rights in Kosovo-Metohija. If there is no dialogue, the political process will be blocked and in practice Serbia will be cut off from Kosovo. It is only through dialogue that Serbia can avoid such a scenario," Tadic said. Tadic said that Serbia will continue to fight for its national interests in a peaceful, composed and planned manner and without confronting the world powers, since it is obvious that without them it is not possible to resolve the Kosovo issue. He underlined that the right option is not that "the Albanians get everything, and that Serbia loses everything." Tadic said that what interests him is not the form of the dialogue with Pristina, but rather the "future solution." "I want to see the historic conflict between Serbs and Albanians solved. A stop has to be put to murders, expulsion and arson. In search for a compromise, we are ready to discuss with Albanians all the problems we have in Kosovo. However, we should wait for the results of the dialogue and then see whether or not we have made the right moves," Tadic said. According to him, it is possible to establish good relations with Pristina without recognizing Kosovo. The very dialogue that we are about to enter is one of the forms of good relations, he added.

* DULIC: SERBIA IS READY TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITIES

VIENNA, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - Serbia is ready to assume its responsibilities in the domain of environmental protection, Serbian Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic stated at an international conference in Vienna which is to determine the position of the European region ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico. Conferences, such as the one in Vienna, provide the ministers of the EU and the Western Balkans with an opportunity to create a common negotiation strategy for the forthcoming talks in Mexico, Dulic told Tanjug, adding that the Cancun conference will try to find a joint strategy and a global response to all climate changes and reduction of gas emission. He underlined that the territory of Serbia is very sensitive to the consequences of the climate changes, adding that the country is located in one of the most jeopardized regions. According to the worst possible scenarios, which are often presented at conferences of the kind, Serbia could in future be a country of extreme meteorological changes, varying from harsh winters to very severe droughts, with intervals of heavy rain, and such climate changes will have an impact all on all spheres of our lives, Dulic added.

* VOJVODINA RE-ELECTED TO AER BUREAU

NOVI SAD/ISTANBUL, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - The Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina was re-elected to the Bureau of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) in Istanbul on Thursday, the office of the Vojvodina Assembly speaker has announced. The province will be represented by deputy speakers Maja Sedlarevic and Branislava Belic, who are already in Istanbul, attending the AER General Assembly. Representatives of more than 300 regions have gathered in Istanbul to discuss regional policies for the next decade. The participants discussed the ways to strengthen the role regions play in decision making when it comes to central governments and the EU. Other topics included regional cohesion and cooperation. Vojvodina was inducted into the AER in 2002, but it was not active in the bureau until 2004. The AER is the largest regional network in Europe. It comprises 270 regions from 33 countries and 16 international organizations. More than two thirds of its members are from the EU.

* KACIN: SERBIA TO ACCELERATE PROGRESS TOWARD EU

BELGRADE, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - The European Parliament (EP) wants as many Western Balkan countries as possible to get EU candidate status, and Serbia needs to make up for lost time and accelerate its progress in EU integration, EP rapporteur for Serbia Jelko Kacin said Thursday. We want as many countries as possible to get EU candidate status, and we want the attention of the EU, which is currently focused on Iceland, to return to southeast Europe, Kacin said at a news conference in Belgrade after a meeting with Chairman of the Serbian parliament’s European Integration Committee Laslo Varga. The Slovenian EP member said that Serbia needs to make up for lost time and accelerate its progress toward the EU, adding it is up to the government and the political parties to analyze the European Commission report and draw conclusions which will affect the work of the government and the parliament. Varga said that he and Kacin discussed Serbia’s progress in EU integration and the pending EP resolution on Serbia, which was closed to amendments Thursday and should be adopted in January. Earlier, Varga discussed the same topics with Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia Vincent Degert. Kacin announced that dialogue on the resolution will continue and that Varga is set to visit the EP next week, while a visit of Serbian parliament speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic is also planned for the near future.

* DEGERT: SERBIA’S DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT SHOULD BOOST EXPORTS

BELGRADE, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - Serbia has made economic progress despite the unfavorable consequence of the crisis, but it has to change its economic development concept in view of boosting exports growth, continue with the economic restructuring, privatization of public enterprises and cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and begin the restitution process, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert said Thursday. Presenting the European Commission report on Serbia’s economic progress, Degert said that it is important for the country to show that it is committed to the economic restructuring, which is a rather long process, but stressed that if after two to three years the process shows to be still in its initial phase, this will not be a good signal for investors from the EU, or for the overall image of Serbia, which aspires to become an EU membership candidate country. Degert said that Serbia has to complete the process of restructuring and privatizing public enterprises such as Telekom Srbija, the Serbian Railways, the Electric Power industry of Serbia (EPS), JAT Airways and public utilities. Serbia’s state administration still owns more than 40 percent of stake in public enterprises, while the percentage was half lower in cases of new EU members, such as Romania and Bulgaria, at the time when they were admitted to the bloc, Degert said, who also expressed concern over the fact that 25 percent of the privatization processes in Serbia were cancelled due to non-compliance with the contract or because the property-legal relations have not been resolved. The restitution process is very important not only for Serbia, but also for foreign investors, who want to know if the property issues have been resolved at the time they plan to invest in real-estate, and there is also the issue of respecting human rights of the original real-estate owners who have not been given back their property, the EU Delegation chief underlined. Serbia’s cooperation with the IMF is of considerable importance, as it sends a positive message to potential and current investors from abroad that the country’s economy is reliable for doing business in, so that the cooperation with the Fund should continue, Degert said.

* EC DEMANDS COMPREHENSIVE STRUCTURAL REFORMS FROM SERBIA

BRUSSELS, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - Serbia should implement comprehensive structural reforms that will make sustainable development of its economy possible, the latest report by the European Commission (EC) on Serbia’s progress towards the EU said. EC experts assessed that the economic and fiscal program for 2010-12, which the Serbian government had previously submitted to the European Commission, represents an appropriate medium-term policy and a realistic macro-fiscal scenario that is broadly in line with Serbia’s reform agenda. As stated in the EC report, the support to Serbia’s macro-economic policy came from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), based on a standby arrangement concluded earlier between the IMF and Serbia. The report, however, warns that the further implementation of medium-term fiscal and structural reforms in Serbia should not be postponed, because this is very important for strengthening the resistance of the country’s economy to possible new challenges. The EC experts estimate that Serbia’s economy is suffering consequences from the global economic crisis and that its recovery is still slow and unstable. The European Commission also noted that last year, Serbia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms has declined by three percent and that GDP per capita was at 37 percent of the average of the 27 European Union members, which is only a slight increase compared to 2009. The EC estimated that the inflow of money and capital in Serbia has been modest and said that last year, the volume of direct foreign investment fell by a quarter compared with 2008, to EUR 1.37 billion, which is 4.3 percent of GDP, while in the first nine months of this year, the foreign direct investment and other investments were considerably lower compared to the same period last year. The EC warned about the growing external debt of Serbia, noting that the capital inflow is largely insufficient to cover the current account deficit.

* SRECKOVIC: DIASPORA IS SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT POTENTIAL

VIENNA, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - Serbian Minister of the Diaspora Srdjan Sreckovic assessed at the meeting of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce on Thursday evening that Serbia’s diaspora is a significant investment potential. "New policy towards Serbia’s diaspora also implies a new approach when it comes to the economic cooperation and attracting investments of the Serbian people from abroad. We want our relations to be partnership, for the Serbian people from the diaspora to invest in concrete profitable projects, to earn money, and thereby indirectly work on the improvement of the economic situation in the country by employing people and affecting the GDP growth," Sreckovic said in a statement for Tanjug. The state does not call on the Serbian people from abroad in a classic, patriotic way to help the country, but rather to start businesses and generate profits in Serbia, Sreckovic stressed. As the Ministry of the Diaspora, we are ready to be at the disposal of any individual investor from the diaspora, to explain all the details regarding concrete investment projects that we have prepared with 68 municipalities and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, he added. Sreckovic pointed out that Serbia’s diaspora has a huge potential, as it has invested about USD 550 million in the country since 2000, primarily in small and medium enterprises which employ about 25,000 people.

* SERBIAN STUDENTS MEET WITH EUROPEAN MPs.

BRUSSELS, Nov. 11 (Beta) - Students and participants in the "Let’s Learn with Europe" project have met in Brussels with members of the European Parliament’s Friends of Serbia Group and Serbian Ambassador to Belgium Radomir Diklic, the Serbian Parliament announced on Nov. 11. According to the announcement, the students and European MPs discussed, among other things, Serbia’s next steps toward full EU membership, the coming Kosovo election and the forging of links between youth from Serbia and the EU. "You are Serbia’s chance, the new Serbian elite," founder of the Friends of Serbia Group Victor Bostinaru told the students, adding that Serbia will need their knowledge and professionalism the most when it joins the EU. Ambassador Diklic acquainted the project participants with the position of the Serb community in Brussels and Luxembourg. Serbian students are also to meet with the head of the Serbian mission to the EU in Brussels, Roksanda Nincic, and will also visit the European Commission headquarters.

* AMBASSADOR SAYS SERBIA CAN UTILIZE DANISH EXPERIENCES

BELGRADE, Nov. 11 (Beta) - Danish Ambassador to Serbia Mette Kjuel Nielsen said on Nov. 11 that Serbia should apply some of Denmark’s experiences in enhancing its energy balance. Speaking at a meeting dubbed "Danish Energy in Serbia" in Novi Sad, the ambassador said that Serbia does not have to go through all the stages Denmark has gone through in order to reach the current energy level. "Setting the price of energy is very important, in order to teach consumers to use energy rationally. That can be achieved through various incentives, for which the state should have a clear plan," Kjuel Nielsen said. According to her, Vojvodina is a good region for the implementation of various measures, such as the incineration of communal waste and the use of biomass for producing heat, and the state should also seriously consider the potential of wind energy and geothermal sources, which have not been sufficiently explored.

* WORDSWORTH: SERBIA IS NOW A NORMAL EUROPEAN COUNTRY

BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - UK Ambassador to Serbia Steven Wordsworth assessed on Thursday that, unlike ten years ago, Serbia is now a normal European country, even though it still has a long way ahead of it in solving economic and political issues. Ten years ago, Serbia was a much more different place with numerous crucial problems, mainly economic as well as political ones, but even though the majority of these problems have been solved, Serbia has a long way ahead of it, Wordsworth said at the reception on the occasion of the completion of work of the UK Department For International Development (DFID) Belgrade office. Nevertheless, Serbia is now a normal European country, which is admirable, he added. Wordsworth pointed out that Serbia’s success is due to individuals, institutions and international organizations that are active in the country, and he particularly thanked DFID for its ten-year effort in solving Serbia’s issues. The British ambassador underscored that DFID’s activities are primarily directed towards the most impoverished countries and crisis areas of the world, adding that it is a huge success that Serbia no longer belongs to that category.

* SERBIAN PARLIAMENT DELEGATION AT NATO PA MEETING

BELGRADE, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - Members of the Serbian parliament permanent delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) will attend the NATO PA meeting in Warsaw November 12-16. The meeting will discuss a report by the Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security regarding the situation in the Western Balkans 15 years after the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia. The Serbian delegation will meet NATO PA President John Tanner, Chairman of the Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security Jo Ann Emerson and committee rapporteur Marc Angel. The delegation comprises Konstantin Samofalov, Edip Serifov, Nikola Lazic, Bozidar Djelic and Vlajko Senic, who is the head of the group. A part of the debate will focus on Serbia and its role regarding security in the Western Balkans, as well as its defence policy concerning NATO, Serifov stated. "Our delegation will send the message that Serbia is a partner to all countries when it comes to maintaining world peace and stability," Serifov wrote in a statement received by Tanjug. According to him, "after the professionalization of the armed forces and the adoption of the national defence and security strategy, Serbia continues to take steps towards integrating itself into the joint European and world political and security system."

- SERBIA - GERMANY

* HERMANN: ABUSE OF RIGHT TO ASYLUM MUST BE PREVENTED

BERLIN, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Hermann said after a meeting with Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic in Munich on Thursday, that German and Serbian authorities must work together to prevent abuse of the right to asylum by Serbian citizens. The main topic of the meeting was the problems with so-called fake asylum seekers, the German Interior Ministry said in a release. Hermann particularly pointed to Serbia’s positive and stable development, which means that requests for asylum from Serbia are unfounded. He thanked Dacic for the speedy measures Serbia has taken to prevent abuse of the right to asylum by Serbian citizens. No assistance is provided in Germany to fake asylum seekers for their return, he said. At the end of last year, visa liberalization was introduced for citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, and the end result was a huge increase in the number of requests for asylum, the release says. Since the beginning of 2010, a total of 227 people from Serbia requested asylum in Bavaria, compared to only 60 last year, the release says. As regards the number of requests for asylum in Germany, Serbia ranks third, after Afghanistan and Iraq, the release says.

* DACIC: EXCHANGING POLICE OFFICERS IMPORTANT

MUNICH, BELGRADE, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said after a meeting with Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann in Munich on Thursday that cooperation can be fostered through exchange of police officers. Serbia has very good cooperation with German police structures, especially from the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria, Dacic said. Bavaria is home to about 100,000 Serbian nationals, he said. Dacic expressed satisfaction with the fact that Bavarian police does not have any major problems with that population. He pointed to the importance of the cooperation with Hans Seidel Foundation involving exchange of police officers from traffic, crime and border departments.

* HEUER: SERBIA SHOULD TAKE MORE CONSTRUCTIVE STAND

BELGRADE, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - German State Minister of Foreign Affairs Werner Heuer said that besides judicial reform and fight against corruption, Serbia should also take a more constructive political stand towards Kosovo. Heuer asserted that, currently, many discrete conversations are being held, but that it is too early to make any prediction regarding possible compromises. "In spite of President Boris Tadic’s strong will, Serbian interior policy will not make it easy for him to take steps which would lead toward success. Those steps would demand too great effort from Serbian citizens, and the opposition would certainly exagerate them," Heuer stated at the session of the Bundestag Committee for the EU Affairs, as German radio Deutsche Welle reported.

* TRUCK SPARE PARTS FACTORY TO BE BUILT IN JAGODINA

MUNICH, Nov 11 (Tanjug) - A MAN truck spare parts factory with truck assembly sector will be built in the industrial zone of Jagodina (central Serbia), near the Belgrade-Nis highway, and the investor will be a Serb who is in the truck business in Germany, Jagodina Mayor Dragan Markovic-Palma stated for Tanjug in Munich on Thursday. "The basic agreement is reached, the investor will receive from the city a land lot with full infrastructure, and he has to employ workers from Jagodina territory in return," Markovic said. He noted that the Serbian entrepreneur, who is the first investor in the Jagodina industrial zone, already has a prepared project for the factory in which he plans to employ about 500 workers. At meetings in the Serbian Consulate General and at the International Electronics Trade Fair, during the visit of a Serbian business and political delegation to Munich, Markovic invited Serbian citizens who are working in Germany to invest in Serbia.

-KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

* ALMOST 30 LISTS REGISTER FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE ELECTIONS

PRISTINA, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - One hour before the expiry of the deadline for submitting lists for participation in the December 12 elections in Kosovo-Metohija, the Central Election Commission (CIK) in Pristina confirmed that almost 30 lists of political parties and civic initiatives have registered for the forthcoming elections. The lists of Albanian parties in Kosovo-Metohija include: the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) led by Hasim Taci, the Democratic League of Kosovo (DSK), the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo Ramus Haradinaj - Ibrahim Rugova, the coalition of parties led by the New Kosovo Alliance, the Democratic League of Dardania, the Self-Determination Movement and others. Among Kosovo Serbs the parties that have submitted their entry to the CIK are: the civic initiative United Serb List, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats of Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbian Democratic Party of Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbian Kosovo and Metohija Party, the Serb People’s Party, the Independent Liberal Party and others. The United Serb list was submitted to the CIK by Randjel Nojkic, head of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) in Kosovo, who told Tanjug that this list is comprised of candidates from parties that constitute the Serbian government and opposition. The United Serb list consists of 56 candidates, and according to Nojkic the voters will have the opportunity to vote not only for the list as a whole, but also for a specific candidate. The list of the Independent Liberal Party, which won greatest number of Serb seats in the province’s previous interim assembly, is made of 30 candidates.

* GEN. MILETIC: NO INCIDENTS EXPECTED DURING DIALOGUE WITH PRISTINA

BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Army (VS) Colonel General Miloje Miletic has said he does not expect any serious threats to the country’s security will occur when the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue begins, but added that such a possibility should not be ruled out completely. "I do not expect there will be incidents or that it will be necessary to activate the hotline between the Serbian Army and KFOR when the talks begin, but this does not mean that such a possibility can be ruled out completely ," General Miletic said in an interview for the Thursday edition of Belgrade’s daily Blic. Miletic said that provoking incidents has so far been an "approved method of those who are against peaceful solutions" and who want to slow down the process of reconciliation. Therefore, the possibility of incidents cannot be ruled out, he added, underlining that criminal structures represent the greatest threat in that respect. Miletic also pointed out that the topic of the forthcoming talks with KFOR commander Erhard Buhler, which are scheduled to take place in Nis on November 18 and which will deal with the issue of cooperation in preserving security in south Serbia, will not be demarcation, as Pristina’s Albanian-language daily Koha Ditore wrongly claims. The topic of these talks will be joint activities of the VS and KFOR forces in securing the administrative border line, the protection of the people and the property in Kosovo and Metohija, and prevention of incidents," he explained. "Neither I nor the KFOR commander have the mandate to discuss the matter of demarcation, and the position of the government and the state is quite clear - Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia and demarcation is not the issue," Miletic underscored.

For further information: Minister for Foreign Affairs of Serbia