SERBIA DAILY No12

W Daily e-newspaper

• N° 12 • Belgrade, May 12, 2016

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WESTERN BALKANS e-MEDIA GROUP

Serbia's EU Membership not on Agenda in Brussels

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The ball is in Croatia's court and as soon as they are ready to take a step forward on the issue, we will be ready to help, says Dirk-Jan Vermeij

he Netherlands did not put the issue of opening Chapter 23 in EU's membership negotiations with Serbia on the agenda of yesterday's meeting in Brussels.

This country which currently holds EU presidency made the decision considering that "Croatia's position has remained unchanged," Tanjug is reporting.

Although 27 countries have already given the green light for the opening of the chapters, Croatia has frustrated attempts to reach a necessary consensus within the EU for two months now.

The Netherlands is in constant contact with Croatia on the issue, but the country's position has so far stayed unchanged, Spokesman for the Netherlands' Permanent Mission in Brussels Dirk-Jan Vermeij told Tanjug.

The ball is in Croatia's court and as soon as they are ready to take a step forward on the issue, we will be ready to help, Vermeij said.

"This will make it possible to open important Chapters 23 and 24 by the end of our presidency," Vermeij told Tanjug.

Croatia wants Serbia to abolish a law giving the country jurisdiction over war

Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Minister: I believe we will have the same number of ministries, possibly one minister less.

We are working on the law on the government and ministries, but before that we must make the plan and program

crimes cases committed in the former Yugoslavia, and is also demanding "guarantees of representation of Croatia's national minority in the Serbian parliament, and Serbia's full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal."

When the Dutch took over the six-month rotating EU presidency in January, they announced plans for open chapters 23 and 24 to be opened by the end of June.

Last week, the Netherlands attempted

Stanislava Pak Stankovic, media advisor to President: President Nikolic didn't say there would be no consultations concerning the naming of a prime ministerdesignate, but rather raised the question if it would be necessary to hold them

and failed to reach consensus on the issue, several weeks after Croatia first blocked the opening of chapter 23.

Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovac said in Warsaw this week that his country was "not blocking Serbia" and was instead "helping it." He described Croatia's behavior toward its neighbor as "very friendly - an approach that will be beneficial in the long term for our partner relations," and added he expected "solutions" to be found "soon."

Ulrike Lunacek, European Parliament's Vice President: Kosovo should not rest on its laurels but had to intensify its efforts with regard to its relations with Belgrade, and all agreements between Belgrade and Pristina must be implemented

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Daily

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PHOTO NEWS

BY EMIR SALIHOVIC EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Workers Between Rock and Hard Place

Demonstrations Against Demolitions in Savamala

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itizens' movement against the Belgrade Waterfront project staged demonstrations yesterday late afternoon in front of the City Assembly, because of the mysterious

demolitions in Savamala district in the night of April 24, when masked people bulldozed and demolished a number of old buildings.

Demonstrators demanded resignations from Sinisa Mali, the mayor, as well as Nikola Nikodijevic, head of the City Assembly, Nebojsa Stefanovic, minister of interior, Vladimir Rebic, head of police, and Nikola Ristic, head of communal police.

They also demanded that the facts and circumstances of the secretive demolitions be presented to public Em. Sa. transparently.

Davenport Pledges Continued EU Assistance Over 15 years, the EU has donated three billionEUR to Serbia, Head of the EU Delegation, Ambassador Michael Davenport said, pledging continued assistance.

"Since the beginning of our cooperation, the EU has invested over EUR 3 billion in various projects. We have donated for improvements in the energy sector, environmental protection, agriculture, local self-governments," Davenport told reporters in Vranje on his two-day tour of the facilities that had been built or repaired thanks to EU funds.

Work on the justice system reform lies ahead, and this will be our priority, he said.

"We continue working in close cooperation with our Serbian partners at central and local levels," the ambassador said.

Over the past four years, the southern Serbian city of Vranje received donations worth around EUR 40 million through various projects.

On the second day of his visit to Vranje, Davenport visited the Neven kindergarten and donated sport equipment to its branch premises in surrounding villages.

Minister Stefanovic Meets Chinese Ambassador Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic met with Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Manchang in Belgrade to discuss cooperation in the field of internal affairs.

In the spirit of good relations between the two countries, Stefanovic and Li agreed that cooperation between the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic

of Serbia (MUP) and the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China should be stepped up.

According to a release from MUP, the meeting also touched on Minister Stefanovic's forthcoming visit to China, aimed at establishing closer cooperation between the two countries' interior ministries.

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he affair with South Korean Yura company in Nis brought to attention, again, the issue of the true situation regarding the workers' rights and conditions of work in Serbia.

Of course, the affair in question is an extreme example, where workers claimed to be physically and even sexually abused. But the situation is not better in many other private companies, foreign or local, employing citizens of Serbia.

Deterioration of economic situation, low salaries and lack of jobs often force people to accept situations and conditions, imposed by employers, which otherwise would be totally unacceptable.

Most often that include expectations to work overtime without any compensation, to have only Sunday off, and to work even on state holidays.

At the same time, in order to avoid paying proper amounts for healthcare and pension fund, employers often pay the workers only the minimal guaranteed wage, which is far from enough to survive a month. And even those minimal wages are often paid in installments, weekly or by-weekly.

Unions are divided, and quite impotent to help the workforce in Serbia to deal with its existential situation. Unfortunately, since democratic changes of 1990s Serbia leaped from socialist to capitalist economy without having training in capitalism first.

That creates a situation where many entrepreneurs treat their employees as was the case in the West at the late 19th and early 20th century.

Social revolt is the only thing that can result from such a treatment.

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PINION

Turkish Pace EU made a dangerous shortfall in its mission of spreading European values through integration. Admission of Romania and Bulgaria was perhaps done in political hurry, only to regret it later, so EU has to force its principles on Serbia now

BY VLADIMIR VUKASOVIC Accession to European Union promptness depends solely on POLITIKA

Serbia and its progress in reforms, EU delegation Chief Michael Davenport suggested. At least in last fifteen years Serbia believed that such agility was truly the only thing which defines its position to Brussels.

We had reasons to reproach, indeed, for we turned out to be so slow that we had all the rights to fear we are going to remain a sort of European orphan, neither European nor our own, almost longer than we were enslaved under Turks in the Ottoman Empire.

However, after we witnessed Europe indulges Turkey, it is not possible to accept Davenport's speech for true.

Almost 30 years, that is how long their negotiation last, Brussels was ensuring Turkey that everything depends on their readiness to reform, only to forget all the principles at the moment when Turkey, under more and more authoritarian and militant regime turned farthest away from democratic standards than at any moment during that period.

Erdogan is now in such a position which allows him even to say that his antiterrorist law, which gives him

power to persecute whomever he wishes, will not be changed even if Europe demands it until the point of utter dissent and break-up.

EU made a dangerous shortfall in its mission of spreading European values through integration. Admission of Romania and Bulgaria was perhaps done in political hurry, only to regret it later, so EU has to force its principles on Serbia, which never saw any yielding.

Numerous states from the old Eastern Block, wither they joined EU when they earned it with it effort or earlier by the grace of Brussels's, fall back to authoritarity, utter conservativism and right wing policies, and inner breakout of their societies. Large pieces of territory "won" in the Cold War, Old Europe did not master, and it does not adhere to own values itself.

We could believe in that mantra so popular even among Serbian Europeans, which says that admission to EU is not so much a goal as it is the means to further our own country: so, for our own sake we should follow reforms to their conclusion. And we are not to think whether Union will approve our membership strictly abiding to rules or it gives us some slack in certain arbitrary areas.

There is some truth in this stance, but the very idea of European values which is supposed to reconcile national interests and universal ideals is vulgarized this way to base private calculus, something like that real or apocryphal Slovenian stand about Yugoslavia as the temporary stadium.

Publisher: WESTERN BALKANS e-MEDIA GROUP z POENTA d.o.o. Sarajevo, Augusta Brauna 3 z Editor - in - Chief: Emir Salihovic z Editors: VLASTIMIR MIJOVIC, AMRA ZIMIC, RASID KRUPALIJA, DANIJELA MRKIC, SANJA LJUBICIC z Director: Amra Zimic z Office Assistant: VERICA GRAOVAC, MUSTAFA BAHTANOVIC, DTP: Bekir Tvrtkovic z Marketing: KAROLINA MIHAJLOVIC z GSM: 00 381 61 2768568, 00 381 11 4086 992, serbiadaily@sbb.rs

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Miscevic: Croatia Wrong to Block Serbia

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I am a very dedicated Euro-optimist but I am also at the same time extremely frustrated, says Miscevic

erbia' chief negotiator in accession talks with the EU Tanja Miscevic called on the European Union to continue the talks in June as planned, voicing expectation that 27 EU memberstates would tell newest member Croatia that it was wrong to block Serbia.

She said, however, that Serbia would not urge the European Commission to put pressure on Croatia.

"It is not up to us... It is up to 27 member-

states to tell the 28th member-state that actually they are wrong," Miscevic told AFP news agency.

"Technically speaking, yes, they (Croatia) are blocking... they are stopping the possibility to go further," Miscevic said.

"I am not going to call it a blockade because they never formally vetoed something.... But they are doing something else, they are not giving the so-called 'green light' on those documents," she said.

Miscevic said Serbia had been working on reforms as required for EU membership, but the country needed to know there "is light at the end of the tunnel, whenever the end of the tunnel is."

"I am a very dedicated Euro-optimist... but I am also at the same time extremely frustrated," as it took us two years to open the first negotiating chapters to begin with, Miscevic told the French news agency.

Negotiations to Resume After New Government is Formed The EU is working at its headquarters in Brussels to ensure holding a new round of dialogue at the highest political level between Belgrade and Pristina, but this will happen only after a new government is set up in Belgrade, Tanjug was told in Brussels.

The High Representative, Federica Mogherini, is in contact with both sides to ensure steps are made that would lead to progress in the implementation

of what has been agreed, Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the European Commission (EC), told Tanjug.

The European Commission says that implementation of the agreements reached at the last meeting between Prime Ministers Alekasandar Vucic and Isa Mustafa in January is of utmost priority.

As Tanjug learned from diplomatic sources in Brussels, the EU continues to

insist on full implementation of what has been agreed in the dialogue, which, they say, is not the case right now.

The sources also said that High Representative Mogherini would not convene a new round of dialogue until the appointment of a new prime minister in Serbia.

In the meanwhile, Belgrade and Pristina will be holding technical level talks in Brussels

Future of Serbia and Kosovo Intertwined European Parliament's (EP) Vice President and Standing Rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek believes that the European futures of Serbia and Kosovo are closely intertwined and mutually conditioned and urges both sides to work on improving relations.

The green light for visa liberalization for the people of Kosovo, which should be ratified by European institutions soon,

creates a "very good momentum" and has to be utilized, said Lunacek, who will travel to Belgrade for the Civil Society Forum Belgrade, taking place today under the framework of the so-called Berlin process.

In an interview she gave the European Western Balkans website, Lunacek said that Kosovo should not rest on its laurels but had to intensify its efforts with

regard to its relations with Belgrade, adding that "all agreements between Belgrade and Pristina must be implemented."

Lunacek said that the future of "both Western Balkans states" remained closely intertwined and it was therefore vital to ensure further progess needed for "both countries" to forge ahead in their EU integration process.

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Serwer: Moscow Sees Vucic as Unreliable

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Daniel Serwer, who met with Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, says the Serbian prime minister is clearly committed to Serbia's EU accession

erwer, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and an expert on the Balkans, added that this makes Vucic an undesirable leader in the eyes of Russian officials, Beta agency reported.

"I think they realize that he is determined to lead Serbia into the EU. That makes him unreliable and undesirable in the eyes of of Moscow," Serwer told Belgrade-based daily Danas in an interview.

He added that Vucic is much more determined toward European integration than toward having a balanced relationship between the EU and Russia.

"Serbia has a future in Europe. Moscow will try to prevent the enlargement of

Europe where it deems it has its sphere of influence, including parts of the Balkans, such as Serbia," said Serwer.

He added that Vucic showed great willingness to cooperate with NATO, but that a decision on Serbia joining the military alliance "seems quite distant."

"He recognizes the importance of the role that NATO has played in the protection of Serbs in Kosovo. However, a decision on NATO membership seems quite distant to me. Ultimately it is the decision of Serbia, which will be made much later than in Montenegro, and probably than in Kosovo and Macedonia," said Serwer.

Serbia is surrounded by many problems and instabilities, but its biggest chal-

lenge in the future will be Bosnia, not Kosovo, he told TV B92.

According to Serwer, RS President Milorad Dodik is putting Serbia in a difficult position by continuing to emphasize the entity's right to hold a referendum.

He also thinks that that relations between the U.S. and Serbia are very good and encourage American investors to come here. He described the fact that Serbia has not joined western sanctions against Russia as "an inconvenience - but not a significant problem."

According to him, Russian power is diminishing - but there is a possibility that a new Serbian government will have a pro-Russian faction.

Rasim Ljajic to Run for President SDPS party leader Rasim Ljajic has said he will run in Serbia's next presidential elections, which should take place in 2017.

"As things stand now, I will run in the presidential elections - and let citizens give their judgment on how I performed in various offices," Ljajic, who has served in several governments, told Belgrade-based daily newspaper Blic, Beta agency reported.

Asked whether this means he will not be

a minister in Serbia's next government, Ljajic said this was "not his decision to make," adding that he "has no desires, nor exaggerated expectations."

Ljajic said that SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic was the one who will decide with whom to form the cabinet, adding, "all I know is that the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians will also be in the government."

Asked to comment on the statement of former Mufti Muamer Zukorlic that he

"expects Vucic to invite him to the government," Ljajic said, "that's all Zukorlic is interested in, to be in the government."

Ljajic's party, the SDPS, participated in the April 24 snap parliamentary election as part of a pre-election coalition gathered around the Progressives (SNS). In the now outgoing government, Ljajic was one of Prime Minister Vucic's deputies, and minister of trade, tourism, and telecommunications.

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Serbs "Don't Know Russia," Says Historian

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Historian Latinka Perovic has assessed that "Serbs do not know Russia enough" and are "understanding that country only in a folklore way"

he also stated that the political elite in Serbia is trying to "sit on two chairs - Russia and the EU." "Russia is for Serbia like a mirage. We want to go to the EU, but we are trying to maintain a balance whose carrier used to be Yugoslavia, which Serbia cannot take over today," Perovic said during a round table entitled, "Serbia in Russia's geo-strategic positioning," held in Novi Sad. According to her, Serbia and Russia are linked by the idea of "a great state" and the two countries "use violent methods in order to preserve it," while the Serbian-Russian relations should be viewed "through a scientific approach, rationally, and through different dimensions."

Former Serbian Ambassador to Russia Jelica Kurjak said that Serbia has always had a "problem with identifying" and that Russia has known how to use that state of being "torn."

"Serbia is constantly sitting on two chairs - the EU and Russia, and we think we are very important in this sitting, but in fact we are losing ourselves," she said.

Beta agency reported that Kurjak explained that Serbia is now a conglomerate of political parties that are unable to see the whole country from their narrow interests. A "big problem" in the functioning of the country is that it "never fully implemented reforms, and has either killed its reformers, or they withdrew themselves," she said.

"As is the case with Russia, one 'boss', whatever his name was, has constantly suited us. This unwillingness to step into the new is the essence of both Serbian and Russian identities," said Kurjak.

Economic journalist Dimitrije Boarov also

Latinka Perovic

took part in the gathering and assessed from the standpoint of economic policy that "the opinion that we should turn to the Russian market emerged from the rise of pro-Russian ideology and marketing of Russia as an alternative in domestic politics."

"There is more and more advertising of that concept, while facts say something else. Last year, Serbia's export to Russia amounted to 726 million dollars, while in

1990 it amounted to 1.197 billion dollars.

And that level of 1990 has never been reached in all this time," said Boarov.

He added that such a large market should not be underestimated, but that Serbia must know that Russia is "on average, a country of poor consumers."

The round table was organized by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, with the support of the Open Society Foundation.

Nikolic: Serbia Unwilling to Cut Ties With Russia The European Union is aware that Serbia will not sacrifice its relations with Russia, despite Belgrade's willingness to enter the 28-nation bloc, Serbia's President Tomislav Nikolic told Sputnik.

Serbia formally applied to join the European Union in 2009. After winning a snap election last month, the ruling Serbian party vowed to speed up the integration process, including pursuing government reforms.

"Europe knows that we will not sever

relations with Russia, so it did not pressure us into imposing sanctions on Russia," Nikolic said, adding he expected EU restrictions against Moscow to be lifted soon.

Nikolic also referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as his best friend, in an interview with Sputnik.

Asked who his "best friend" was among foreign colleagues, Nikolic replied, "Putin. At least that is my feeling."

The Serbian president last traveled to Moscow with a working visit in March to

discuss the outlook for bilateral cooperation with Putin. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is expected to go to Belgrade in the near future.

Serbia and Russia continue to cherish their historically close relations despite Belgrade's EU membership bid.

Conversely, ties between Russia and Europe soured after the outbreak of a 2014 military conflict in Ukraine, which Brussels blamed on Russia's interference, and imposed a series of economic sanctions against Moscow.

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Serbian Workers Struggle with Poor Conditions Government pandering to investors, inadequate labour legislation and a slow-moving judiciary are some of the reasons for widespread violations of workplace rights in Serbia, trade unions believe Beating workers with metal sticks if they bend over while working, ordering them to wear nappies so they don't waste time going to the toilet, asking them to do unpaid extra hours or work on public holidays, and firing them for arguing these are just some of the complaints that employees of Yura, a South Korean company based in the town of Leskovac, raised in a series of articles published by Serbian newspaper Danas.

Yura has declined to comment on the alleged violations of workplace rights.

But although the allegations are extreme examples, the Danas articles about the South Korean firm, published over the past fortnight, have highlighted the poor conditions in which some Serbian employees have to work.

Zeljko Veselinovic, the president of the association of Serbian trade unions, Sloga, told BIRN that unfair labour legislation and slow-moving employment tribunals are the key reasons why Serbian workers cannot get protection from bullying tactics by management.

"The labour legislation is very flexible and allows employers to fire people easily. Serbia has one of the worst labour laws in Europe. Also, the judiciary is extremely slow‌ labour disputes go on for several years which prevents people from even starting to fight for their rights," Veselinovic said.

He added that workers are afraid to join unions since they cannot afford to lose their jobs. Therefore, in the private sector, unions are a rarity.

Cheap Workforce Responding to the allegations about the Yura factory, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said that any potential violations of workers' rights will be examined, but warned that media focus on such stories could discourage investors from coming to Serbia.

"I am fighting for the workers, and I will always fight [for them], but I will not throw out investors," Vucic said on April 30.

Mario Reljanovic, an expert on labour legislation, told BIRN that Vucic's statement shows the state's general attitude toward workers.

He recalled a commercial on CNN in 2014, which was financed by the government, in which Serbian workers were advertised as a "high-quality and cheap workforce".

"If you have that kind of marketing of its own citizens by the state, well, what you can expect from investors who are only profit-oriented?" Reljanovic asked.

In November 2015, employees at the Italian-owned Confezioni Andrea factory in Jagodina in central Serbia organ-

ised a warning strike because they claimed they worked too hard and were fined if they didn't meet targets.

"Standards are unrealistic, and our every mistake can cost between five and 30 per cent of our salary. There are layoffs on a daily basis. There are also very frequent injuries at work," said Momirka Bojic, the president of the Independence trade union, which represents workers at Confezioni Andrea.

Confenzioni Andrea fired the workers who were complaining, but a few days later, after a meeting between the company management, the union and Jagodina mayor Dragan Markovic Palma, they got their jobs back.

Both Veselinovic and Reljanovic agreed that unions as well as the government must be blamed for the lack of protection offered to Serbian workers.

Compromised Unions Most of the big unions are compromised because they are funded by the state, Veselinovic argued.

According to Danas, workers at the Yura company are also bound by a secrecy agreement which forbids them from making their terms of employment public.

A total of 745,000 people are officially registered as unemployed in Serbia, although some claim the unemployment rate is actually higher than the official statistic of 18 per cent.

"Serbian workers are in such a bad situation that they would rather endure [bad conditions] than quit a job, since it is unlikely they will find another," Reljanovic said.

According to government plans for 2016, it is expected that 14,500 will be fired from the public sector which will raise unemployment and intensify the competition for jobs.

Meanwhile the minimum wage in Serbia, at less than one euro per hour, is among the lowest in Europe.

"I'm not optimistic about the future.

Citizens cannot rely on the unions or the state," Reljanovic said.

"The cases of people who were fired and are legally fighting to regain their jobs and approaching me for advice are mostly of the verge of poverty or madness... and the situation is getting worse as time passes," he added.

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New Serbian Government Must Hit the Ground Running

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As the dust begins to settle over the conduct of Serbia's elections, citizens look toward the daunting economic challenges awaiting the next government

ccusations made by opposition parties against the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) regarding electoral manipulations and fraud alleged to have occurred during the elections on 24th April have brought relations between them to new lows not seen during the entire - rather dull election campaign.

With the final results now in, Parliament must hold its first session within 30 days, paving the way for the election of a new government. As things stand, the new government will not be sworn in before mid-June. Given the controversy surrounding the recent election, the government's term will likely start on a sour note.

By the time it is sworn in, four months will have been lost to election campaigning and government formation.

Meanwhile, the list of problems the government must tackle is growing.

Soon after it is seated, the new government can expect a visit from the International Monetary Fund. The fourth review of Serbia's Stand-By Agreement with the IFM was due to be completed in March. An IMF mission visited Belgrade in late February, but due to the approach of Parliamentary elections the IMF decided to defer discussions on the review until a new government was in place.

New Mission Assuming a new government is sworn in around mid-June, a new IMF mission could arrive to complete discussions on the review before the summer holiday season. The IMF is broadly pleased with the government's fiscal performance.

The biggest sticking point will be lack of progress in meeting previous commitments to reduce public-sector employment by about 9,000 people by the end of January 2016.

With elections now over, the government could quickly move to implement the remaining redundancies assuming political will is there, particularly as redundancy plans are in place. Either way, the IMF is unlikely to sign off on the fourth review until this condition has been met.

A much tougher nut to crack will be disposing of the remaining 11 strategic but money-losing state-owned companies, a list that includes RTB Bor, Petrohemija,

Azotara Pancevo, Resavica coal mine and truck maker FAP. The government has no buyers and no solutions.

At present, legal protections prevent creditors from calling in debts and forcing the companies into bankruptcy in most cases - but only until 28th May. The government had proclaimed its intent to find buyers for them or send them into bankruptcy by this date. This ambitious goal was judged unrealistic by many, and it will almost certainly not be accomplished.

Consequently, a fudge of sorts is likely.

Those with the least prospect of finding buyers - such as truck maker FAP from Priboj - may finally go into bankruptcy. Yet for most, the government is likely to find new, creative ways to stave off creditors without extending formal legal protections.

It will thus buy itself - and the companies and their workers - time, with the tacit blessing of the IMF. This will be a pyric victory, however, as the government will remain stuck between a rock and a hard place: unable to find buyers for these companies but also unable to allow them to go under. Meanwhile, the IMF's patience will not last indefinitely.

Biggest Challenges Perhaps the biggest challenges lie in the second half of 2016. These problems may seem far away, but they will soon creep up on the government.

According to existing commitments made to the IMF, by the end of June the government must lay out a plan for

reducing public-sector employment by an additional 20,000 workers by the end of 2016, either through retirement or, more likely, yet more redundancies.

Missing the redundancy targets for 2016 may not be a bad thing. Laying off so many people in such a short period would create significant social tension and it could have a negative effect on private consumption, undermining already weak growth. Even the Fiscal Council of Serbia, an independent government body, has warned that the scale of public-sector cuts is excessive and could endanger the delivery of core public services.

The Serbian government has also committed itself to reducing employment in major public companies as part of an effort to stabilize finances. Thus, the state electricity corporation - EPS - will need to reduce its headcount by about 1,000, while Serbian Railways will need to dispose of around 2,700 staff.

Even these redundancies may be easier for the Serbian ruling elite to stomach than IMF and World Bank demands relating to changing the way companies such as EPS, Serbian Railways and Srbijagas are managed. For decades, ruling political elites have siphoned money out of these - and other - public companies through politically appointed managers. Now, the IFM demands professional management, greater transparency and an end to waste.

For Serbia's political elite, giving up these cash-cows will be the hardest thing to do.

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Hazy Future for Serbia's Copper Giant

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While the long-term solution for RTB Bor remains uncertain, Serbian taxpayers will continue to pay for company mismanagement

he future of RTB Bor, Serbia's copper mining and smelting complex - and the biggest employer in eastern Serbia - seems far from certain.

On May 31, the last 11 companies in restructuring, including RTB Bor, will lose protection from enforced debt collection and are due to be privatized or closed. For more than a decade, the restructuring process protected hundreds of state owned companies from bankruptcy. This allowed RTB Bor to continue operations despite one billion EUR in debt which the company was not able to service.

Even though the legal restructuring deadline is expiring, government officials have hinted that they will not leave RTB Bor and its 5,000 workers at the mercy of market forces and creditors.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic reviewed an analysis of the RTB Bor situation prepared by consulting firm McKinsey and reported on March 22 that this "big and important company, from which whole eastern Serbia depends", must survive.

Economy minister Zeljko Sertic asserted that RTB Bor will continue to operate after the end of May with certain changes in technological processes and with reduced costs in the procurement of materials.

Increased Costs The government has not, despite these assurances, disclosed a detailed plan to keep RTB Bor operating. Any plan is almost certain to include increased operating costs, the experts warned.

The legally mandated privatisation for 17 strategically important companies was prolonged several times, latest until May 2016. In January 2015 the government included RTB Bor in a group of 17 strategically important companies that would be eligible for a year's delay in legally mandated privatisation. The initial group of 17 companies was reduced to 11 after five enterprises lost government protection and one implemented an approved reorganization plan.

Fiscal Council estimates that the minimum cost of the companies' operations will be approximately 13 billion dinars [€106 million] in 2016, while continuing assistance will add 27 billion dinars [€220 million] in 2017.

Entrance to RTB Bor

These companies employ about 18,500 workers, however, in some of Serbia's most underdeveloped areas. It is not easy for the government to let the companies go down the drain despite the costs.

RTB Bor general manager Blagoje Spaskovski admitted in a NIN Weekly interview on March 31 that the company would not be able to repay its €1 billion of debt without state assistance. "The debt of RTB Bor could not be solved without adopting the pre-prepared plan of reorganization, which would include conversion of debts to the state into capital and repaying of commercial debts within the next seven years, with [a] one year grace-period," he said.

The biggest creditors of RTB Bor are state-owned banks in bankruptcy and the pension fund. Commercial loans amount to €120 million. It is not only historical debts that are burdening RTB Bor, but also recent ones caused by net losses in recent years.

While management emphasizes investments in the new smelter and Veliki Krvelj plotation associated flotation devices, critics insist there are serious shortcomings in managing the company, including the technological solutions that are being implemented.

Ljubisa Miljkovic, president of the miners' trade union, says the smelter, whose construction the government supported financially, has a lower utilization rate than planned, while lower-quality imported concentrate does not comply with smelter technology, increasing the cost of production.

"RTB Bor is now a social institution protected by the state, which must be reorganized in order to become profitable," Miljkovic says, asserting that the com-

pany's current head, Spaskovski, is the biggest obstacle for achieving profitability and finding strategic partners.

Deep Roots In previous years, several companies were interested in acquiring or investing in RTB Bor, including the Chinese firm Li Ten and the Goldman Sachs investment fund. Miljkovic believes that with 100 years of copper reserves the company has a future, but insists that without investing in mining work, RTB Bor can't achieve sustainability. The company has invested exclusively in metallurgy for the past two decades, he says.

The Fiscal Council pointed out that causes for RTB Bor's troubles have deep roots that can't be explained solely by shifts in copper's market price. The Council's study confirmed that the current price of about $4,500 per ton is not a historically low price. The price of $9,000 dollars per ton set a historical precedent, the Council reported, and the current price is relatively common in the long-term interval.

Vladimir Vuckovic, member of the fiscal council, believes the government has no intention of resolving the issue of the two most problematic companies in privatization - RTB Bor and Resavica, the underground coal mining company.

Milan Kovacevic, an economist, notes that RTB Bor suffers from the same flaws as many other state companies, including lack of transparency, surplus workforce and mismanagement.

Meanwhile, RTB Bor management announced its intentions to reduce the labour force by 800 to 900 workers, with 250 more to be sent on paid leave.

S e r b i a D a i l y, M a y 1 2 , 2 0 1 6

10

Removal of Program Director "Political Decision"

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The head of independent journalists union says the removal of the program director of the Vojvodina TV station was politically motivated

he head of an independent journalists union in Serbia has told Balkan Insight that the recent decision to sack the program director of the TV station in the country's northern province was politically motivated.

The replacement of Slobodan Arezina, program director for Radio Television Vojvodina, RTV, was a political move and had nothing to do with any professional criteria, Nedim Sejdinovic, president of the Independent Journalists Association of Vojvodina, NDNV, told BIRN. Arezina was sacked last week by the board of directors of RTV. They said there had been drop in viewer numbers and they complained there was no plan for the next year.

"RTV was gradually but steadily making progress professionally, as was shown by research and by recognition of domestic and foreign organizations. So, there was no need to replace Arezina," Sejdinovic said.

According to him, the replacement was politically driven and was made in the cabinet of the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic.

"The replacement of Arezina was just deliv-

ered by the ... board of directors of RT Vojvodina but the political decision was made in the cabinet of the Prime Minister," Sejdinovic added.

The decision to sack Arezina came after Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party won political control of the province following recent elections in Vojvodina as well as in Serbia.

Sejdinovic added that it was good that so many journalists and editors from RTV had showed solidarity with the axed director.

More than 40 journalist and editors from RTV have signed an open letter of support for Arezina.

"As a journalists association, we will try to help colleagues from RTV to maintain the level of professional standards that were achieved during the last five or six years.

RTV is a public television and should not become just another loudspeaker for Prime Minister Vucic's authoritarian government," the letter stated.

BIRN requested a comment from Vucic's office regarding allegations expressed by the association of journalists, but received no reply.

Sejdinovic said that the NDNV was in regular communication with international organiza-

tions in attempts to help RTV Vojvodina, which he claims is now in jeopardy.

He also claimed that members of the board of directors were appointed to their positions by the government mainly to put pressure on journalists.

"The president of the board of the directors of RTV is former official of the Milosevic regime in the Nineties. It is a pity that some people from the board, who had honorable names, have allowed themselves to become faceless tool in the hands of the government," he said.

"It is a good thing is that NGO sector has also recognized the replacement of Arezina as a problem - but the fact is that this demonstration of force will be hard to stop," he added.

"I am afraid this is just the beginning of disciplining the last oasis of professional journalism in Serbia... this government cannot stand criticism, so I expect further replacements", Sejdinovic concluded.

According to the latest Freedom House report, Serbia is on a list of 19 countries where media freedom declined fastest in the course of a single year. The Serbian goverment has strongly denied putting any political pressure on journalists, however.

OSCE Condemns Attack on TV Crew in Kosovo OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic has condemned an attack on a television crew in Obilic, near Pristina.

The organization announced this in a statement on its website.

"A crew from TV Most, including journalist

Jasmina Stojkovic, cameraman Boban Sekulic, and driver Aleksandar Sotlic, were verbally and then physically assaulted by an unknown assailant. According to reports, the cameraman was attacked with a shovel while the crew was filming a news report on humanitarian aid alloca-

tion to the Branko Radicevic school in Obilic," the statement reads.

"Violence against journalists is an attack against free expression and the society as a whole. It is vitally important to quickly investigate this crime and punish the assailants," says Mijatovic.

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11

Kosovo War Film Wins US Festival Award

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BIRN's film The Unidentified, investigating the commanders responsible for brutal attacks during the Kosovo war, was given the best short documentary award at the South East European Film Festival in LA

he Unidentified, which names the Serbian officers who ordered attacks on Kosovo villages around the town of Pec/Peja in 1999 and those involved in the cover-up operation to hide the victims' bodies, was awarded the best short documentary prize at the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Nemanja Babic, the director of the film, told the audience at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills that work on the film continued for two years as the production team struggled to persuade all those involved, both perpetrators and victims, to give interviews for the documentary.

"It took us months to convince a lot of people to appear in this documentary.

Some of the witnesses first said yes and then they would change their mind once we pressed 'play' on the camera," Babic said.

"This prolonged the whole process of filming, but in the end the work paid off and this prize also inspires us to continue working on this topic," he added.

The Unidentified takes viewers back to 1999, to the villages of Ljubenic, Cuska, Pavljan and Zahac near Pec/Peja in Kosovo, where Serbian fighters killed more than 118 Albanian civilians. Their bodies were either burned or removed, and some of them were later found in mass graves at the Batajnica police

Nemanja Babic receives the award at the South East European Film Festival

training centre near Belgrade in 2001.

The trial of 11 fighters alleged to have been involved in the killings - 10 of them accused of being direct perpetrators is still ongoing in Belgrade.

In February 2014, nine of them were sentenced to a total of 106 years in jail but an appeals court annulled the verdict last March, calling it "incomprehensible and contradictory" and sent the

case for retrial.

The film had its international premiere at last year's Sarajevo Film Festival and has been screened at various other festivals and institutes, in Paris, New York, Washington DC, Zagreb, Belgrade, Prizren, Pristina, Tirana, Maribor and Los Angeles.

The Unidentified will also be screened for the first time in Belgrade on May 14 at this year's BELDOCS film festival.

Belgrade Honours Bowie An exhibition of photographs of Bowie, paintings that were dedicated to him or inspired by his work, and reviews of movies in which he appeared was opened at the Yugoslav Film Archives and will last until early August.

There will be also organized a concert dedicated to Bowie in the Academic Park (studentski park) in central Belgrade, with well-known Serbian musicians expected to perform.

The photographs of Bowie on show were taken by his official photographer, Belgrade-born Brian (Branislav) Rasic, who worked with the British musician from 1983 until one of his last-ever live appearances at a concert by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd in 2006.

"I believe that in this way we are replaying Bowie for what he gave, not only to

David Bowie

music but in film and culture in general," said one of the organisers of the tribute, Sergej Trifunovic.

He said he hoped that the event would show that Belgrade is "once again a city where artists and avant-garde achievements are realized, the way it was in the nineties".

Belgrade's city manager Goran Vesic said he was "proud that Belgrade will be the first city in this part of Europe to pay tribute to David Bowie".

"For my generation, Bowie was part of our upbringing and education, through whose work we entered the world of music and learned to push the limits," Vesic said.

"I believe that this exhibition will be an opportunity for younger generations to get familiar with his work and influence," he added.

Bowie was known as a musical and stylistic innovator from the 1960s right up until his death this month.

His critically-acclaimed final album, "Blackstar", was released on January 8, just two days before he lost his fight against liver cancer at the age of 69.

TODAY IN THEATRES CASANOVA AGAINST DON JUAN

Author: MIODRAG ILIC Location: MADLENIANUM THEATRE, Zemun Time: 20:00hrs

BETRAYAL

Author: HAROLD PINTER Location: YUGOSLAV DRAMA THEATRE LJUBA TADIC STAGE Time: 20:00hrs

DON QUIXOTE

MAMMA MIA!

Ballet Author: LUDWIG MINKUS Location: NATIONAL THEATRE MAIN STAGE Time: 19:30hrs

NEW IN CINEMAS

Musical Location: TERAZIJE THEATRE Time: 19:30hrs

Cineplex - TC Usce Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 4

17:00 21:00 20:30 22:00 22:30

Zootopia Captain America Mr. Right Hunter and Ice Queen Clan

Takvud Cineplex Kneza Milosa 7 17:00 Book on Jungle 3D 20:30 Bourek 18:30 Hunter and Ice Queen 22:00 Mother's Day

WEATHER OUTLOOK Chronically ill and meteopaths are advised caution due to the expected biometeorology situation. Particularly strong discomfort could feel asthmatics and people with cardiovascular disease. Meteopathic reactions are possible in the form of headaches, bad mood and sleepiness.

Dom sindikata

Decanska 14 18:15 Book on Jungle 3D 18:00 Criminal Mind 20:00 Bourek

Cineplex - Delta City Jurija Gagarina 16/16A 18:20 Bourek 20:30 Mr. Right 22:30 Clan

Roda Cineplex Pozeska 83a 20:00 Mother's Day 21:00 Captain America 22:15 Mr. Right

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