EU Path in Danger & more –26th Sep 2023

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 26th of September twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Tuesday the 19th, the EU issued a second warning to Kosovo and Serbia for not implementing the EU-brokered agreements. Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, said on behalf of EU member states that both Serbia and Kosovo must engage to implement agreements they have made, in order to stay on their paths to EU accession.

Much like last week, Borrell urged Kosovo to establish the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities, a body that will represent Kosovo Serbs and their interests. He also said that Kosovo must hold new local elections in the four Serb-majority municipalities in its north. Borrell added that despite the repeated calls from the EU, Kosovo and Serbia have not taken the necessary steps toward progressing in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

The lack of the establishment of the Association and the results of the boycotted elections in the north of Kosovo, already created an unstable environment in the region. Still, things keep getting worse.

On Sunday the 24th, Kosovo officials said that there was a terrorist attack. Shooters killed a police officer and injured another one. Kosovo’s PM Albin Kurti said that the shooters were professionals equipped with an arsenal of firearms, including hand grenades and arm launchers. Kosovo police reported that two heavy vehicles without license plates parked on a bridge at the entrance to the village Banjska, blocking it entirely. They then started firing at the police units that were arriving at the scene. Kosovo police managed to arrest the attackers, however, they killed three of them in the process. Kosovo police detained them for two days on suspicion of terrorist offenses.

The whole situation was called into question as Kosovo officials accused Serbia of orchestrating the attack. Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani said that the perpetrators were part of Serbian criminal groups. Kurti also blamed Serbia for the attack, condemning Serbian officials for not protecting the Kosovo police.

However, the topic to which Serbian officials did react was the arrest of three Serbs suspected of committing war crimes during the nineteen ninety-nine conflict between Serbia and Kosovo.

On Wednesday the 20th, Kosovo’s special prosecution reported the arrests of three Serbian men, suspected of war crimes. Upon hearing the news, president Vucic accused Kosovo of arresting innocent citizens, while calling on foreign diplomats to intervene in the situation so that “Serbs can survive on the territory of Kosovo”.

Petar Petkovic, the head of the Serbian government's office for Kosovo, seconded Vucic's statements. Petkovic said that these arrests were Kurti’s orders, accusing him of attempting to expel Serbs from Kosovo.

On the other hand, Albanian President Bajram Begaj called for the strengthening of the rights of Albanians living in Serbia. He took the rights of Serbs in Kosovo as an example, which he said reflected European norms and values. Addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, he said that Serbia didn’t do anything about the removal of over six thousand Albanian residents from the Serbian civil registry. MEP Viola von Cramon commented on the situation and said that the issue should be included in Serbia’s EU accession negotiations..

Recall that over the past few years, Serbian authorities illegally removed Albanians residing in the country from the Serbian civil registry, by declaring the properties they resided in as empty. The results were a reported decrease of up to seventy-one percent of the Albanian population in Serbia, even though these Albanians were still physically living in the country.

In other news…

The 21st Serbia Against Violence took place on Saturday the 23rd in Belgrade. The crowd gathered in front of the Assembly and walked to the building of the Public Media Service Radio-television Serbia, or RTS. For the first time since the series of protests started, representatives of the parliamentary opposition gave speeches with their main motto being that they are fighting for freedom, not power. Along with the opposition, many professors, students, actors, and public figures participated in the demonstration. Once again, the protest managed to gather tens of thousands of people, even after five months since the demonstrations began.

Since the mass shooting in May that left nineteen dead, Serbs keep showing up in crowds of tens of thousands in order to protest against corrupted state officials and institutions that, in their opinion, contribute to the violent and tense environment in Serbia. The protest attendees have been gathering every week since the shooting, demanding that the government revoke broadcasting licenses from media companies that promote violence.

In some news on the economy…

On Thursday the 21st, the state auditing institution published a report on the state's spending in twenty twenty-two. The report showed that almost nineteen percent of the public procurements involved irregularities in spending. Last year, the institution filed around 150 reports in which they targeted about 300 officials in public institutions. Around a hundred of them were requests to initiate misdemeanor proceedings while the rest were about economic offenses and criminal complaints.

Still on the economy…

The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, reported that the air quality in Belgrade is worse than in almost any other city in Europe due to pollution, adding that this problem may be a consequence of economic growth. Out of the fifteen most polluted districts in Europe, five are located in Belgrade. The major pollutants that are responsible for such statistics are coal plants, landfills, old vehicles, and bad heaters that produce toxic particles. The researchers who conducted studies on air quality in Serbia said that the government must work on effective measures to reduce air pollution, as fine particles can cause strokes, ischemic heart disease, and lung cancer.

However, in twenty twenty-two, Serbia adopted an action plan worth around three billion dollars to reduce air pollution in the next ten years, with its primary goal being the phasing out of old cars, boilers, and stoves.

While on the topic of respiratory issues…

Last week, the Institute for Public Health confirmed around twenty eight hundred COVID-19 cases, with zero deaths. Compared to last week, the number of confirmed cases has increased by around thirteen hundred.

On a more positive note…

On Friday the 22nd, PM Brnabic announced the introduction of the first-ever textbook in Serbian sign language. While attending the celebration of the International Week of the Deaf at the Children's Cultural Centre, Brnabic pointed out that the government reached an agreement to develop more sign language textbooks. PM Brnabic acknowledged that there is still a huge gap between children who are deaf and hard of hearing and everyone else, but added that the introduction of textbooks in sign language is the first step toward helping these kids in school.

At the celebration, the President of the Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing mentioned the implementation of the Declaration for the rights of deaf children, pointing out the importance of the rights to sign language and bilingual education.

Speaking of education…

The twenty twenty-three European Researchers’ Night, the largest scientific event in the country, will take place on Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th from four to ten PM, and it will be free of charge. The event will be held in many Serbian cities, such as Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, and Kragujevac. The twenty twenty-three European Researchers’ Night will take place in twenty-six European countries simultaneously. It features workshops, exhibitions, games, competitions, quizzes, and live experiments. Wanna know more? Follow the link to the event’s website that’s in the show notes.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

This Serbia Rorshok Update is one of the country-specific podcasts we do.

But we've been experimenting with other topics, and we have a new show about the Arctic, where we update you on everything going on North of the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Update is the third of the new series, along with the Ocean and Multilateral Updates.

You can look for them in your podcast listening app of choice or follow the links in the show notes! Tell your friends!

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!