SERBIA: Explosion in Kosovo & more – 3rd Dec 2024

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 3rd of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Friday the 29th, an unexplained explosion damaged a part of the Ibar-Lepenac water channel in the north of Kosovo, and its government accused Serbia of being behind the blast. The explosion happened a few days after the Kosovo police increased their presence in the north due to the recent attacks on their institutions. Kosovo’s government held a session on the next day, on Saturday the 30th, and then publicly accused Serbia of orchestrating the explosion, labeling it as a terrorist attack. The Kosovo police have since arrested several individuals in raids at different locations.

Their prime minister Kurti said that Serbia must have tried to jeopardize the supply of electricity and water in Kosovo to damage its critical infrastructure. However, Serbian President Vucic denied the country’s involvement in the explosion, calling Kurti irresponsible for throwing around such accusations.

On the same day, thousands of citizens all across Serbia participated in the Stop, Serbia action aimed at commemorating fifteen victims of Novi Sad’s main railway station canopy collapse, which we reported on a month ago. Participants held fifteen minutes of silence, one for each of the victims, urging all pedestrians and cars to stop and participate. They also called on the government to take responsibility for the canopy collapse, holding banners citing corruption as the main reason behind the tragedy.

However, instead of taking responsibility, ruling party and opposition MPs clashed in the parliament last week after the opposition legislators raised banners accusing the ruling coalition of avoiding taking accountability. Ruling party MPs, on the other hand, held signs accusing the opposition of seeking conflict. Verbal altercations erupted, followed by punches from both sides. Recall that citizens were also enraged because the collapse happened after a station’s recent renovation, which finished in July and officials boasted about its quality.

In other news, the Belgrade Pride organization called on the government on Thursday the 28th to adopt a law on same-sex unions immediately. They highlighted that same-sex marriage is a human right, and added that a law granting this union is crucial for respecting the dignity of the LGBT+ community.

Currently, same-sex unions are illegal in Serbia, forcing LGBT+ couples to get married in other countries. Belgrade Pride cited a recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, which obliged all Council of Europe members to provide legal recognition for same-sex unions made abroad. The organization said that Serbia, as a member country of the Council of Europe, has to urgently adopt a law on same-sex unions in order to protect the basic needs of the community.

Speaking of community, the European Commission published the results of their public opinion-based Autumn Eurobarometer twenty twenty-four survey on Friday the 29th, where they questioned citizens of EU and EU candidate countries about their trust in the Union. On average, more than fifty percent trust the EU, which is the highest trust it had since two thousand seven.

When it comes to Balkan countries, Albania saw the highest trust rate in the region, with around eighty percent. The majority of citizens in Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Bosnia trust the Union as well. However, the opinions of Serbian citizens differed greatly. Around forty percent of Serbians expressed trust in the EU, while only thirty percent were in favor of the country joining the Union. The main reasons for these lower percentages were fears of changes to traditional values and increased labor migration to the country.

Next up, the National Bank of Serbia, or NBS, has submitted its Draft Law on the Protection of Financial Services Users to the parliament, aiming to put an interest rate cap on several loan types. The NBS stated that their idea with the draft law is to limit the interest rates to a maximum of five percent for housing loans until twenty twenty-six, compared to the current cap of four percent.

Aside from housing loans, the draft law also focused on cash and consumer loans, as well as on new and existing credit card agreements. They underlined that with this draft law, they aim to protect users of financial services by providing manageable and predictable interest rates.

On Monday the 2nd, the State Statistical Office published an economic review for the third quarter of twenty twenty-four. One of the topics the report focused on was the import and export of goods, noting that imports saw faster growth than exports. By the end of the third quarter of the year, the country’s exports amounted to around 300 billion dinars, which is about three billion dollars, marking an increase of around four percent compared to the same period last year.

However, when it came to imports, it grew by around nine percent year-on-year, amounting to around 400 billion dinars, which is about 4 billion dollars. Trade was the highest among countries Serbia has free trade agreements, such as China, Turkey, and Italy. The most exported products included vehicles, copper, and electricity, while the most imported products included crude oil, medicine, and natural gas.

While on the topic of economy, councilors in the Belgrade City Assembly passed a decree on Wednesday the 27th on the average prices of properties per square meter, or ten square feet, across Belgrade. Nikola Nikodijevic, the President of the City Assembly, said that with this change, the basis for determining property tax rates in twenty twenty-five will change. He explained that until now, property taxes were calculated based on book values, which are often lower than market values. But with the new decree, the tax prices will be based on the average property value in a given zone, as well as the building’s age. Nikodijevic noted that the property tax will still align with market values, adding that they will be below the inflation rate.

On that note about Belgrade’s buildings, after the demolition of the famous Hotel Yugoslavia two weeks ago, citizens of Belgrade remain worried about the potential toxic asbestos contamination. The Serbian Association for Demolition, Decontamination, and Recycling warned the government that the hotel’s demolition process could have released hazardous asbestos dust. They underlined that construction projects often used asbestos as a construction insulation material in the nineteen sixties, when Hotel Yugoslavia was built, and that the government only banned it in two thousand seven.

Activists in the capital demanded a thorough analysis of the rubble to ensure the safety of citizens, since asbestos could cause serious health complications such as lung diseases and cancer.

The Construction Inspection authorities still have not commented on the matter.

In some news about energy, Elektroprivreda Srbije, or EPS, the Serbian state-owned electricity producer, announced on Thursday the 28th that they had installed the first of twenty wind turbines at the Kostolac wind farm in the east of Serbia. Kostolac is the first production facility that will generate wind power, reducing the use of fuel and its impact on the environment. EPS stated that they expect the wind farm to generate enough power to supply around 30,000 households.

On Friday the 29th, Serbia’s Statistical Office published a report on tourism in Serbia, which noted that in October it increased by nearly eleven percent compared to the same period last year. The number of overnight stays of foreign tourists increased by around ten percent, amounting to around 550,000 stays in October. The majority of tourists arrived from China, followed by Bosnia, Turkey, and Russia. On the contrary, the number of domestic tourists dropped by around eight percent compared to October last year, amounting to around 180,000.

And to wrap up this edition, rom the 5th to the 8th of December, Belgrade will hold the eighteenth Fair of Ethnic Food and Drinks. The event will feature the staples of Serbian cuisine, such as ajvar, banica, and rakija. Tickets range from 300 dinars, which is around three dollars, to 800 dinars, about seven dollars, and are available at the Belgrade Fair’s ticket office.

For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Do you know that besides the Rorshok Serbia Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates for the full list, the link is in the show notes.

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!