SERBIA: Opening Border Crossings & more – 10th Sep 2024

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 10th of September twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

The interior ministry in Kosovo announced on Saturday the 7th that all border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia have reopened after their brief closure the day before. Last week, we mentioned that Kosovo authorities shut down seven municipality institutions in the Serbian-majority north, which support ethnic Serbians living in Kosovo. Dissatisfied with such a decision, affected citizens blocked several border crossings in protest. The protesters didn’t allow people with Kosovo documents to enter Serbia. Xhelal Svecla, Kosovo’s interior minister, said that the blockade was in plain sight of the Serbian authorities, accusing them of being accomplices.

The protests were short-lived - lasting only for a day, allowing the borders to reopen. Despite this, Serbians in Kosovo are still dissatisfied with the closed municipality institutions, calling on international institutions to convince Kosovo to reopen them.

On that note about bilateral relations, Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s deputy prime minister, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a gas supply contract between the two countries. They met in the eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia, on the sidelines of an economic forum held there. During the gathering, Vulin showed his willingness to maintain good relations with Russia, going as far as to say that Serbia will never impose sanctions on the country, despite their ongoing aggression against Ukraine. Even though Vulin’s office said that the meeting aimed to discuss a gas supply contract, its statement didn’t mention it, and instead spoke about Serbia’s relationship with Russia.

The meeting faced backlash from international institutions, with the EU and the US State Department noting that Serbia’s efforts to maintain good ties with Russia clashes with their values.

However, not all Serbian officials are in favor of meeting with Putin. On Thursday the 5th, president Vucic declined Putin’s invitation to attend an economic event in Russia scheduled for October. During his meeting with Vulin, Putin invited Vucic to attend the BRICS forum, which aims to diversify trade and investments. Putin said that trade between the two nations was declining, and he implied that it would be best for Serbia if the country didn't break up the economic partnership with Russia. However, Vucic responded in less than a day, declining the invitation and adding that he would have important foreign guests coming at that time (but he didn’t say who).

As we have been saying in previous shows, the West keeps criticizing Serbia for maintaining good ties with Russia. Due to such pressure, Vucic has been trying to dissuade others from believing that Serbia is a Russian ally, and he continues to highlight Serbia’s condemnation of Russia’s violent invasion.

Speaking of Vucic, last week he talked about the possible reinstatement of mandatory military service in Serbia. The discussion on this topic has been around since last year, and has gained even more traction as the country kept buying military equipment and ammunition. Recall that just last week, Serbia bought a dozen new Rafale fighter jets from France. The decision about reinstating mandatory military service is not set in stone just yet, and Vucic said that the government will deliberate on the topic more during the budget discussions for twenty twenty-five, which will take place in around a month. However, he noted that the likelihood of mandatory military service reinstatement is very high. If reinstated, the service would last for seventy-five days and would be mandatory for men and voluntary for women.

Now, some news about the environmental protests in Serbia. The opposition against lithium mining in the country is gaining more supporters every day, and recently the Faculty of Biology in Belgrade joined in. The faculty’s professors, who are also experts in the environmental field, accused the state officials of caring only about financial gain for the country and dismissing the devastating and irreversible effects mining could have on biodiversity and the ecosystem. They called on the government to halt the planned Jadar project led by Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies.

While the government officials expressed willingness to discuss the topic of lithium mining with those who oppose it, they were quick to label the professors from the Faculty of Biology as liars, adding that their warnings about the environmental effects of mining are not based on facts.

Moving on, on Saturday the 7th, Belgrade hosted the 10th annual Belgrade Pride march. This year’s slogan was Pride is People, and the organizers explained that with it, they wanted to highlight the challenges queer people face due to homophobia and transphobia, on top of regular everyday discrimination. Several thousand people gathered and marched down the city center with rainbow flags and banners, briefly pausing in front of the government and parliament buildings to voice demands for LGBT+ rights. The organizers noted that the LGBT+ community in Serbia is still waiting on the adoption of laws legalizing same-sex partnerships and a new law on gender identity. They said that the state officials could easily implement these laws and that they are a matter of basic human rights.

Next, some updates on the economy. The Ministry of Finance reported that Serbia’s national budget recorded a surplus of more than 600 million dollars in the first seven months of twenty twenty-four. The ministry noted that they had expected quite the opposite trend - a deficit of nearly 400 million dollars. However, the same period recorded both the budget revenues and expenditures of around twelve billion dollars. The largest portion of the budget surplus was seen in July, reaching around half a billion dollars.

Moreover, Serbia is among the top European countries in terms of GDP growth in the last seven years. The Institute for Politics and Economy of Southeast Europe, or IPESE, published an analysis on Sunday the 8th, highlighting the fast-growing economy of Serbia. They said that the country’s GDP increased by around twenty-five percent since twenty eighteen, and estimated an additional increase of around six percent for the next two years. IPESE also noted that the construction sector is significantly supporting this trend, which in recent years has generated around five percent of the country’s GDP.

On Monday the 9th, the National Bank of Serbia, or NBS, published a Draft Law on the Protection of Financial Service Users, which aims to limit the interest rate levels, as well as introduce a new, lower statutory default interest rate. The NBS proposed an interest rate of around twelve percent on dinar-denominated obligations (which is a decline of fourteen percent), and around ten percent on euro-based ones (representing a drop of twelve percent). They explained that the new draft law serves to assist both citizens and the economy in the current period of high interest rates.

Despite the efforts to assist the citizens financially, prices are on the rise. Particularly, operational costs and energy prices, as most heating plants in the country have already increased heating costs by up to thirty percent since the end of July. In Belgrade, power plants are working on approving new prices for the upcoming heating season, with a proposed increase of nine percent.

In the eastern town of Majdanpek, prices spiked by around thirty percent. Their local power plant explained that they provide heating all day, every day, justifying the new costs by highlighting the rise in energy prices. In the northern city of Subotica, prices have stayed the same, but their power plants expressed concerns about not covering fixed operational costs.

And to wrap up the show, Belgrade’s Sava Center will host José Carreras, a Catalan operatic tenor from Spain, next week, on the 16th of September. Accompanying him on the stage will be the Opera Orchestra of the Serbian National Theater from Novi Sad, conducted by David Gimenez. Ticket prices range from around thirty-five to 120 dollars, and are available for purchase online. For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

And that’s it for this week!

Thanks for tuning into the Rorshok Serbia Update. You can find us on your Spotify, Apple podcasts and all the other platforms as the Rorshok Serbia Update.

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!