SERBIA: The Berlin Process & more – 8th Oct 2024

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 8th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

The Berlin Process for Western Balkans, an intergovernmental cooperation working on EU enlargement, celebrated its tenth anniversary on Tuesday the 1st, gathering foreign ministers of the participating countries. At the conference, they discussed ways of improving European integration and economic cooperation among the Western Balkan countries.

One of the key issues in this region is the blockade of goods imports from Serbia to Kosovo, as it prevents the implementation of the Central European Free Trade Agreement, or CEFTA. Aside from boosting economic cooperation, CEFTA also aims to promote the Common Regional Market and good neighborly relations in the Western Balkans.

However, after the conference, on Sunday the 7th, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Kurti announced the lift of the ban on goods from Serbia to Kosovo, but only at the administrative checkpoint at the Merdare border crossing in the South of Serbia.

Speaking of neighbors, the Administration for Emergency Situations in Belgrade has sent around forty firefighters and rescuers from several Serbian cities to areas affected by floods and landslides in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After heavy rainfall impacted homes and roads, Bosnia declared a state of natural disaster on Friday the 4th. The country’s landslides flooded and cut off transport links, causing more than eighteen deaths and leaving many injured and missing. Serbiavode, Serbia’s state-owned water company, has sent Bosnia two excavators as part of first aid and offered more equipment to the country.

On that note about environmental damage, the news about a potential mining project in Gornja Studena, an area near the southern city of Nis, has caused a reaction from several opposition politicians, as well as the citizens, who fear irreversible pollution. Last week, workers from Apollo Minerals Limited, an Australian mining company, settled in Gornja Studena for their upcoming copper and silver ore research.

Members of the opposition party the Green-Left Front demanded a debate regarding the possible ore mining in Gornja Studena, citing fears of land devastation and groundwater pollution. Moreover, the area of Gornja Studena, which Apollo Minerals Limited has set to explore, is near the Studena spring - one of the springs that supplies the entire city of Nis with drinking water.

After this news, citizens of Nis have begun drawing up petitions, protesting the mining in Gornja Studena due to potential environmental damage.

While on the topic of protests, the Women in Black NGO, which is a feminist and antimilitarist peace organization, held a silent protest against Israel’s attack on Palestine. Marking one year since the conflict, the participants, dressed in black, gathered in Belgrade’s city center and held banners with messages calling for the end of the genocide in Gaza. The NGO expressed solidarity with the civilian population living in Israel and Palestine.

More demonstrations as teachers across Serbia went on strike and staged a protest on Wednesday the 2nd in front of the government building in Belgrade. Dissatisfied with the salary increase of twelve percent that the executive proposed, teachers demanded higher wages, noting that they would continue fighting to improve their position through their unions and with legal means.

The Serbian Minister of Education said that the government currently does not have the budget to increase the teachers’ salaries by more than twelve percent, but has nonetheless invited the education trade unions to continue the discussion about wages. She also criticized the teachers’ idea to strike, as it meant that students in more than twenty percent of schools did not have classes that day.

Another group of workers that has an issue with the government is the farmers. On Thursday the 3rd, some farmers from the northmost city of Subotica went to discuss and negotiate their requests with the executive. Others parked their tractors at one intersection in the northern province of Vojvodina to send a message of unity. They warned the government of new protests if it did not cooperate.

The farmers are demanding a moratorium on all agricultural loans, a payment of 17,000 dinars, which is 160 dollars, per hectare for certified seeds, and excise-free fuel at all gas stations, among other things. Moreover, they are demanding that the government dismiss the current agriculture minister, with some farmers saying that he is slandering them in the media.

Since we mentioned the media, last week, the journalistic team of Tanjug, a private Serbian news agency company, received a worrying email in which the signed individual threatened to shoot them if they stepped foot in Kosovo again. The email described Tanjug as having a “propagandist, chauvinist and warmongering machinery” because their journalists referred to Kosovo as a province in Serbia and not as a country.

The International Federation of Journalists, or IFJ, condemned the threats, describing them as outrageous and vile. The IFJ’s chief project manager said that the journalists are merely doing their jobs, and has called on Kosovo authorities to investigate and detain the perpetrator.

In some economic news, on Friday the 4th, Serbia received an investment credit rating for the first time in the country’s history. The credit rating agency Standard and Poor evaluated Serbia’s economy and determined to boost the country’s credit rating to the investment-grade level, which opens up opportunities for economic growth. Such an upgrade ensures lower financing costs, greater access to international capital markets, and increased investor confidence. Moreover, Serbia is the first country in the Western Balkans and the only EU candidate country to reach this investment level.

Still on the economy, the Ministries of Finance and Trade have jointly sent drafts of two laws for public consultation - one on gambling and the other on its advertising. They said that there is a large gray area in the economy of gambling in Serbia, as the current law does not prevent the unauthorized creation and promotion of games of chance.

These two draft laws will allow only authorized bodies, like the State Lottery of Serbia, to create games of chance. The Ministries added that they also aim to significantly restrict the operation of betting shops by introducing new obligations, which are yet to be determined. This will protect budget revenues and safeguard the interest of minors who often visit betting shops illegally.

The latest data from the Association of Games of Chance Operators said that Serbia has 2,900 sports betting shops, which places the country as second in Europe in terms of the number of betting shops per capita, with the UK being first.

In other news, president Vucic announced that the opening of the newly constructed section of the high-speed railway from Novi Sad to Subotica will take place on the 24th of November. The route will allow passengers to travel between the two cities faster than before, with the train ride lasting around an hour, as opposed to the two-hour-long bus ride and an hour-and-a-half car ride.

President Vucic said that Hungary is currently working on the railway connecting to Subotica, which would ensure a direct line from Belgrade to Budapest. The government plans to work on more direct lines extending past the country’s borders, for example a connection via Nis to Thessaloniki, as well as to Istanbul.

Talking about Novi Sad, the city will host Serbia Fashion Week - the most famous fashion event in the region - from the 9th to the 14th of October. This year’s event will focus on the promotion of international cooperation, and will feature works from both domestic designers and those from foreign countries, such as France, the US, and Greece. The program features lots of activities, including six blocks of fashion shows on the 11th and the 12th of October. The tickets for each of the blocks retail for 1,500 dinars (which is around fourteen dollars), and are available for purchase online and at sale points across the country.

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 Turkey 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!