SERBIA: Ohrid Agreement & more – 26th Mar 2024

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

Last week, EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell published a statement about the lack of progress both Serbia and Kosovo have made on implementing the Ohrid agreement and its annex. Borrell said that failing to meet the obligations under the agreement strongly jeopardizes both sides’ efforts to join the EU. He advised President Vucic and Kosovo’s PM Kurti to work on the implementation without further delays, as it would greatly improve Kosovo-Serbia relations.

The Ohrid agreement and its annex are part of the EU-mediated normalization process between Kosovo and Serbia. Vucic initially accepted the agreement but refused to formally sign it because part of the agreement obliges Serbia not to stand in the way of Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, which the country thinks is equal to a de facto recognition of Kosovo’s independence.

However, Serbia is showing progress in other fields, such as its anti-money laundering and terrorist financing policies. The Council of Europe anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL published a report last week in which they went over Serbia’s compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s Recommendation on new technologies. This recommendation states that financial institutions should identify and assess potential money laundering or terrorist financing risks. On the scale from non-compliant to largely compliant, MONEYVAL evaluated Serbia as largely compliant with the new technologies recommendation. They also added that out of forty Financial Action Task Force’s Recommendations, Serbia is largely compliant with thirty-five and compliant with the remaining five.

Moving on, on Wednesday the 20th, the Justice Ministry removed the director of one of Belgrade’s prisons after, allegedly, some inmates mentally, physically and sexually abused another convict until he died. The Ministry dismissed the director due to his inability to prevent such violent behavior. The victim was serving a misdemeanor sentence of thirty days, and so were the other inmates.

The problem of inter-prisoner violence remains high in Serbia, as the Council of Europe’s report published in January showed that levels of such violence were widespread among the country’s prisons.

In some news on the economy, the National Bank of Serbia, or NBS, said that in twenty twenty-three, the country received more than five billion dollars worth of foreign remittances, which they noted is a drop of around thirty million dollars compared to twenty twenty-two numbers. These foreign remittances include salaries from foreign employers to workers living in Serbia, as well as pensions, financial aid and gifts from abroad. The NBS added that most of the money came from Germany, with around thirty percent, followed by Switzerland, thirteen percent, and Austria, with ten percent.

More on the economy as, on Wednesday the 20th, the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade held a Quarterly Monitor presentation for twenty twenty-three, which is a quarterly-issued bulletin of economic trends and policies in the country. During the presentations, the participants stated that they expect a drop in interest rates, which could start in a few months. They estimated that the average year-on-year inflation in twenty twenty-four could range between four and five percent, which is a decrease from twenty twenty-three’s twelve percent. They also said that they expect the GDP to increase by up to four percent compared to twenty twenty-three’s, which amounted to 140 billion dollars.

On Thursday the 21st, the International Atomic Energy Agency held its first nuclear energy summit in Brussels, and one of its attendees was President Vucic, who made a speech about Serbia’s position in nuclear power production. He said that currently, the country does not have much to offer in this field, mostly due to its decades-old legislation that bans the building of nuclear power plants. The government of Communist Yugoslavia adopted this legislation after the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in nineteen eighty-six. However, Vucic said that Serbia is willing to change the mindset of its people on nuclear energy, which is currently mostly negative and prompt with fear.

In some environmental news, on Friday the 22nd, Marijanti Babic, the Serbian representative of Rio Tinto, which is the world's leading metals and mining corporation, spoke about the company’s highly disputed Jadar project, calling on Serbian officials to push the project forward. She said that it could earn the country 180 million dollars annually from taxes and mining rent. She also addressed environmental concerns and assured that Rio Tinto would not carry out the project if it was not in line with the EU’s environmental standards.

Jadar is a mineral deposit containing lithium located in the west of Serbia, and has been a target of Rio Tinto for the past couple of years. The Jadar project sparked massive protests in the country, because of its possible effects on the environment and the health of those living near the deposit. Serbia has since revoked Rio Tinto’s license in the deposit’s mining.

Still on the environment, on Friday the 22nd the National Alliance for Local Economic Development and the Green Development Center signed a Memorandum of Cooperation stipulating the implementation of several environmental campaigns. These include Plant your shade and Let’s do it!, which promote removing unregulated landfills and raising awareness about proper waste management.

On World Forest Day, the two groups pointed out that Serbia needs 200 million more trees in its territory in order to preserve human health and biodiversity and mitigate climate change since trees moderate extreme temperatures and diminish the effects of stormy winds, thus reducing the need for heating and cooling.

On that note about health, a law banning smoking completely will soon be the subject of a parliamentary debate.

Danica Grujicic, the Serbian minister of health, said that the ministry has been trying to introduce the ban on smoking for a while. This prohibition would affect indoor places, such as restaurants and cafes, as well as some public outdoor places, like stadiums and bus stops. Grujicic said that the draft law on the ban on smoking has been forwarded to other government ministries for their approval or amendment, adding that around seventy-five percent of citizens support it.

Speaking of citizens, on Wednesday the 20th, the Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford published the twenty twenty-four’s World Happiness Report. The Center surveyed citizens from around 140 countries, asking the respondents to evaluate their current lives on a scale of zero to ten. According to these standards, Serbia had an average score of around seven, ranking at 37th, which is seven places higher than in twenty twenty-three. Finland placed first, with an average score of around eight, followed by Denmark and Iceland. At the bottom of the list were Lesotho, Lebanon, and the lowest-ranked Afghanistan had a score of around two.

In some science news, the University of Belgrade and the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the University’s participation in a major scientific project called Future Circular Collider, or FCC. Vladan Djokic, Belgrade’s University Rector, said that he hopes this cooperation will enable Serbian researchers, engineers, and companies to participate in the project and gain knowledge and experience. The FCC project will develop designs for higher-performance particle colliders, intending to push their energy and intensity to a higher level to make new discoveries.

And to close this edition, from Tuesday the 26th to Saturday the 30th, Belgrade’s Youth Center will host the 71st March Film Festival, the oldest documentary and short film festival in Serbia. This year, the attendees will be able to see nearly one hundred films, eighty of which will be premieres. The movies will also compete for the Festival’s Grand Prix in different categories. The festival’s tickets are available at the Belgrade Youth Center box office and online, ranging from around three to five dollars. For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

Have you ever tried to pick something with a group of people, a movie to watch, a restaurant to go to, a book to read, anything like that?....And the process of deciding is endless, divisive, and annoying?....Yeah, us too.

But....there's light at the end of this particular tunnel! Rorshok has developed an app that makes deciding something within a group very easy and fun. If you'd like to be in the first group of people to try it out and give us your opinions and ideas, let us know at info@rorshok.com.

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!