SERBIA: Normalization Agreement & more – 18th Jun 2024

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 18th of June twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Thursday the 13th, EU spokesperson Peter Stano published a statement, accusing Serbia of violating the Agreement on the Normalization of Relations with Kosovo. Recall that Serbia and Kosovo reached a binding agreement on normalizing relations in twenty twenty-three.

Stano said that Serbia is actively lobbying against Kosovo's entry into international organizations, which violates the agreement. This is the first instance of an EU official explicitly accusing Serbia of violating the normalization agreement.

Serbia is against Kosovo joining international organizations because it does not recognize Kosovo’s independence. However, Christopher Hill, the US Ambassador to Serbia, said that the EU is not asking Serbia to officially recognize Kosovo as a country, but just to normalize their relations.

Speaking of the US, on Wednesday the 12th its Treasury Department announced sanctions against around 300 entities, including Bassire Group, a Russian company based in Belgrade. It was founded in twenty twenty-three and is engaged in wholesale trade of computer equipment and software. With the sanctions, the US Treasury Department aims to prevent Russia from accessing products and services that it uses for military purposes in its war against Ukraine. Janet Yellen, the treasury’s secretary, said that Russia is relying on foreign countries to access technology, equipment, software, and IT services. She said that by sanctioning these firms, the US is increasing the financial risks of the institutions that are helping Russia’s war economy.

On that note about the war, Switzerland held a two-day summit for peace in Ukraine with nearly a hundred countries participating. At the conference, representatives of Serbia, along with representatives of eighty other countries, signed a declaration calling for Ukraine's territorial integrity to be the basis for the resolution of the war. Despite the previous lack of condemnation from Serbia to Russia, the attending countries were pleasantly surprised by Serbia’s endorsement of the final declaration.

Switzerland billed the conference as a first step toward peace. However, they didn’t invite Russia. This exclusion sparked concerns about the event being pointless, as it preached dialogue over conflict but failed to establish one between the parties at war. On this issue, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that “There is no Russia here because if Russia would be interested in peace, there would be no war.”

On Tuesday the 11th, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, or BIRN, published a report analyzing the institution's responses to requests for Freedom of Information, or FOI, in Balkan countries during twenty twenty-three. The report aimed to address institutional transparency and accountability. However, BIRN’s regional director said that public institutions in twenty twenty-three routinely refused to respond to FOI requests, and added that such reluctance is becoming widespread. The analysis showed similar results among countries, with the FOI approval rate dropping from around sixty percent in twenty twenty-one to around fifty percent in twenty twenty-three. BIRN journalists said that obtaining information on certain topics from officials is nearly impossible, specifically corruption.

In other news, on Friday the 14th, the Council of Parents from the elementary school Jovan Ducic in Belgrade called for a protest after an assault case involving a parent and a teacher. The day before, a mother of a student assaulted and injured a teacher because she was not happy with her child’s grades. She is currently in police custody.

Gathered in front of the school, the council members demanded the authorities punish the attacker appropriately. One of the members said that violence in school occurs frequently, in many forms, and damages the education system.

More about protests as multiple farmers’ associations announced on Monday the 17th that they organized a protest because the government didn’t meet their demands, including the lack of payment for subsidies, lack of farming lot registration in the government’s electronic farming registry, and the unregulated commodities market. The associations highlighted that they had to resort to protests, since the previous meetings with the Agriculture Ministry did not solve any of their issues. The statement of these associations did not specify when or where they would hold demonstrations but concluded that they did not want to stay silent “in the face of deceit”.

In some news on the economy, the State Statistics Office, or RZS, reported that the year-on-year inflation amounted to around four percent in May, which is a decrease from April’s five percent. RZS also noted that the consumer price index increased by around 0.5 percent in May, and added that the prices of food and beverages rose by around one percent, which is a slower increase compared to the previous month. Transport prices saw the highest hike, which was around seven percent in May compared to 4.5% in April. Serbia’s central bank predicted that the year-on-year inflation should continue to drop to around three percent by the end of the year.

Another increase in prices was seen in the real estate market, with apartment prices rising by around five percent in the first quarter of twenty twenty-four, compared to the same period last year. The Republic Geodetic Authority stated that the annual moderate price hike indicates the stability of the real estate market, which is good for the country’s economy. They explained that the number of apartment sales remained the same compared to last year, amounting to around 10,000 in the first quarter of this year.

On Sunday the 16th, president Vucic announced that he is preparing to re-open the lithium mining Jadar project with Rio Tinto, despite numerous protests and environmental concerns. In an interview with the Financial Times media outlet, Vucic said that he is certain that Rio Tinto would meet the necessary environmental standards. He said that the mine in the western Jadar region of Serbia has the potential to produce around 60,000 tons of lithium per year. Rio Tinto agreed with Vucic, and added that the Jadar project could act as a catalyst for developing an electric vehicle chain in Serbia, due to lithium’s role in battery production.

Vucic’s decision comes two years after the government decided to stop the Jadar project due to massive environmental protests, since the mining of lithium severely polluted rivers and green areas in Jadar. After Vucic’s announcement, the Environmental Uprising movement condemned his statements and added that Rio Tinto has no legal basis for getting a permit to mine again, citing the lack of binding contracts between the company and the Serbian government.

On that note about pollution, Danica Grujicic, the former health minister, said that Serbia is in the lead when it comes to cancer deaths in Europe, adding that the number of patients suffering from malignant diseases has been on the rise since the NATO bombing in nineteen ninety-nine. In the aftermath of the bombing campaign, the depleted uranium in bombs littered Serbia, causing environmental damage and leaving consequences on human health. Malignant disease cases doubled, amounting to around 40,000. Grujicic said that there was also an increase in autoimmune diseases, infertility in both men and women, and pathological pregnancies.

And to close this edition on a brighter note, Belgrade’s third annual open-air cinema event at the Sava promenade started on Friday the 14th and will run until the 26th of August. Every Friday and Saturday at 8:30 PM, visitors will be able to tune in and watch the screenings of both Serbian and international movies, including famous titles like Star Wars, Barbie, and Oppenheimer. Entrance is free, and the list of films is available on the Gallery shopping mall app. For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

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

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