64 posts
Kosovo Is Serbia’s Cost Driver No. 1
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It has cost the country four lost wars, international isolation and triggered an unprecedented economic decline. It now even risks undermining Serbia's European future as the sarcastic saying is still casting its spell.
Arrest clears way for Serbia’s EU membership talks
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By SLOBODAN LEKIC BRUSSELS — The arrest of the last Serbian international war crimes fugitive removes the final obstacle for the opening of accession talks between Serbia and the European Union. Goran Hadzic, who was part of the rebel administrati...
Selling Serbia, a PR nightmare
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Serbia has bombed out buildings, the world's friendliest people, a kick-ass music festival and some big fat mysteries like Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic. Is the Balkan country just a population of war-weary conspiracy theorists who lik...
War Crime Hypocrisy
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Related to Serbia’s EU association process nearly every progress report of European Commission highlights Serbia’s cooperation with Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Although the country has demonstrated its commitment t...
Morning Brief (8-9)
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Progress between EU and Serbia on Kosovo? Yesterday EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met with Serbian President Boris Tadic. According to Serbian Blic online, “Brussels is offering Serbia a dialog over special status for the north of Ko...
Correspondent's diary, Day One: Pandora's box and a dirty bus
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Our Balkan correspondent looks for the future, starting with a new Serbian military base and ending with an ancient Kosovar bus...
Fifteen Years After Srebrenica, Serbia Comes to Terms With its Past
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BELGRADE — War was not supposed to happen again in Europe. For decades, children had been taught in schools across the continent of the horrors perpetrated by Nazis and Fascists and Communists, by foreign invaders and domestic collaborators.
Kosovo snips another cord
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So Kosovo just turned off the remaining Serbian mobile phone towers: The Kosovo Albanian authorities in Priština removed the equipment of all Belgrade-based mobile and landline operators this morning… Eyewitnesses, who secured the premises, sa...
Bosnia like Nagorno Karabakh, Serbia and Kosovo like FRG and GDR?
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I was quite impressed by the statement made by Hido Biščević, secretary-general of the Regional Cooperation Council for South Eastern Europe (RCC) in an interview, that the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is “extremely worriso...
Serbia on the road to EU
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Serbia’s application to join the EU was finally made before X-mas. Early December EU foreign ministers agreed to unblock Serbia’s interim trade agreement, which is part of Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). Serbia, Macedonia, and...
Serbian’s path towards EU
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Today Serbia officially put in for EU membership. Milica Delević, head of the Serbian Office for European Integration, said: "We officially confirm to be ready to accept all the values and obligations necessary to join the EU".
Free, to travel, at last
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BELGRADE — After nearly 18 years, the citizens of Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro are free to travel to European Union Schengen area countries without visas. A decision by the Council of Ministers of the European Union on November 30 opened t...
Serbian EU application – a milestone for Europe
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This afternoon, Serbian President Boris Tadic will visit Stockholm to hand over the country’s application for membership in the European Union. This makes it an important day, and actually a milestone in history for both Serbia and the EU. Just...
Serbia Will Apply for Membership on December, 22
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The Serbian government will formally apply for EU membership on December, 22, 2009.
Serbian EU application will be milestone in history
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I have just had lunch with Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who is visiting Stockholm for discussions on future Serbian EU accession. Serbia intends to apply for EU membership this autumn, a process which is welcomed by the Swedish Presidency...
Gazprom in Serbia: How’s that working out?
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A year and a half ago, I wrote a post about the sale of Serbia’s oil and gas company, NIS, to Russia’s Gazprom. Here were the high points: – Gazprom was able to buy NIS for much, much less than its real value — 400 million eu...
Discussions on EU-Serbia relations
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I have just finished a meeting with Mrs Slavica Dukic Dejanovic, the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament. Mrs Dukic Dejanovic is visiting Stockholm today to discuss the relations between the European Union and Serbia. My message to her was that the Swe...
US seeks better ties with Serbia
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Despite the tensions in their relationship over the years, the US and Serbia have agreed to disagree in order to move their relationship forward. In a visit to Belgrade on Wednesday, US Vice President Joe Biden told the Serbian government that Washin...
Serbia Receives 3 Billion Euro IMF Loan
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Well, the news is just rolling in off the wires this morning: The International Monetary Fund and Serbia have agreed a 27-month, 3 billion euro programme to help the Balkan nation enforce the biggest spending cuts in years needed to anchor its weake...
10 years after Nato bombings against Serbia
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While remembering the 10th anniversary of Nato bombings against Serbia I like to highlight some basic issues before, during and after bombings 1999: • Public justification was based to fabricated, manipulated and one-sided reports by U.S. like ear...
10 years since Nato bombings against Serbia
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While remembering the 10th anniversary of Nato bombings against Serbia I like to highlight some basic issues before, during and after bombings 1999: · Public justification was based to fabricated, manipulated and one-sided reports by U.S. like ea...
Serbian-Croatian Relations After the Summit
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The first time ever an ethnic Serb citizen of Croatia, Aleksandar Jevtic, has received Croatia's highest award. The ethnic Serb citizen of Croatia has saved the lives of Croatian soldiers during the Croatia's war of independence, which was in fact, a...
Serbia knocking on IMF door
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It’s reported today from Belgrade that the government of Serbia intends to ask the IMF for a fairly substantial program loan of around $2 billion (which would be a scaling up of a precautionary $500 million facility already in place). One str...
Serbia Told to Hold Back EU Application
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A Serbian accession would be a political breakthrough in the painful post-war transition of the Balkans from dictatorship, planned economy and civil war to a democratic and market oriented society. Serbia has been the strongest, least peaceful and le...
A partial UN victory for Serbia
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What do Albania, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau have in common with the United States? They were the only countries that supported the US when the United Nations General Assembly voted this month on a Se...
Protests in the Balkans
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While the EU leaders are battling an ongoing financial crisis (via European Avenue) and playing host to Lukashenka, the Balkans are in throes of protests. After Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo on Thursday, Belgrade expelled the two neighbo...
Serbia’s Radical Party: strange convulsions
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“Strange are the convulsions of defeat.” — Winston Churchill So Serbia’s Radical Party, having lost two Presidential and three Parliamentary elections in a row, is breaking up. Sort of. If you’re not a Serbia-watcher, h...
Serbia EU candidate in 2009?
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At a press conference on Wednesday, EU Commission president Barroso a href="http://euobserver.com/9/26682"told/a that Serbia "could" become an EU candidate country in 2009, without making a clear timing commitment.br /br /However, when you read Barro...
Serbia's ambassadors reinstated
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You may have heard last week that the Serbian government has decided to reinstate its ambassadors who were withdrawn from the EU countries that recognised Kosovo's independence. This is good news. It is only by having regular contact that differences...
Serbia takes a step forward
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The capture of Radovan Karadzic is a feather in the cap of the new Serbian government and a necessary step towards becoming an EU candidate country. Having been president for just a few weeks, Boris Tadic’s decision to go after Karadzic so quickly...
The EU will want more from Serbia than arrests
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by Tomas ValasekOn July 21st, Serbian security agents hauled Radovan Karadzic off a bus in Belgrade and took him into custody. The long-wanted wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs now awaits extradition to the International War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY)...
Dabic/Karadzic: the power of healing?
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It seems self-proclaimed guru Dragan Dabic aka Radovan Karadzic may possess some healing powers after all. At least, that is what some Dutch Srebrenica veterans hope (hat tip Eric Gordy): Former Dutchbat soldier Johan de Jonge is elated about Mr Kara...
One more headache for Serbia
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The story is explained here. Short version: 21 year old Miladin Kovacevic, recruited by Binghampton University in western New York state is alleged to have beaten a fellow student to a coma, along with 2 accomplices. His passport was seized when...
Karadzic: joy or relief?
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pInbsp; have been readingnbsp; some of the testimonials from the relatives of victims of genocide in Bosnia.nbsp; There have been some expressions of joy but the pain has been stronger.nbsp; Genocide is rightly not a term used lightly - nor is Richar...
On the Capture of Karadžić
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By Hannah Lucinda Smith Radovan Karadžić cut a striking figure in the early 1990s; and no less of one in 2008. Television reports of the Bosnian Serb war leader’s capture made for compulsive viewing this week, just as interviews with the st...
Karadzic arrest
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I was really pleased to hear the news that Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia. Karadzic has blood on his hands and the world is a better place now that he has been detained. He organised the murder of thousands of innocent peopl...
Dragandabic.com - The most surreal and fake website
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By now we all know about a certain Dr Dragan Dabic (aka Radovan Karadžić). It is also a fact that Karadžić worked as a doctor of alternative medicine in the centre of Belgrade. And he even had his own website! First thought: How weird … S...
Dragandabic.com - The surreal website of Karadžić is a fake!
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By now we all know about a certain Dr Dragan Dabic (aka Radovan Karadžić). It is also a fact that Karadžić worked as a doctor of alternative medicine in the centre of Belgrade. And he even had his own website! First thought: How weird … S...
Karadzic's Arrest: Triumph of European Soft Power?
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Finally, Serbia is back in Europe. Stephen Castle and Steven Erlanger write in the NY Times: Europe on Tuesday welcomed the arrest of Radovan Karadzic not just as a victory for international justice, but as a vindication of the Continent's favored...
Karadžić arrested, ambassadors back - What next for Serbia?
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Serbia’s new government really seems determined about its pro-EU ambitions. The arrest of war criminal Radovan Karadžić is clearly a political breakthrough, not only for Serbia but also for the entire region as well as a promising sign for EU...
After Karadžić, Mladić?
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Recent developments in Serbia give the impression that the newly established government tries to act in a “European way” and fulfill the criteria of the SAA as quickly as possible. Probably everyone who follows the developments in the r...
The Hunting Party
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As many of you probably know, Radovan Karadzic was finally captured and arrested on Monday near Belgrade. The interesting thing is, that at least according to the BBC, the reason for the capture seems to be a consequence of increasing pressure by the...
Karadzic arrest: It’s not that simple
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War criminal arrested: cue all sorts of guff from people who should know better about how this proves the Serbian government’s “pro-Western credentials” and demonstrates “Serbia’s European aspirations”. It does not...
Serbia’s slow road to the EU
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The European Union can hardly contain its pleasure at the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the murderous Bosnian Serb leader who was picked up in Serbia on Monday after 11 years on the run. For all those who believe the best way to ensure long-term stab...
Serbia almost has a government!
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It looks like Boris Tadic’s Democrats have hammered out a coalition with the small but crucial-for-a-majority Socialists. They tried to convene Parliament a couple of days ago, but the soon-to-be-opposition parties disrupted it. They’re...
And then there were three
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Unexpected good news from Serbia: police have picked up Stojan Zupljanin, one of the four remaining war crimes suspects still at large. Zupljanin is a pretty good catch. He was a medium-big fish: a police administrator in Yugoslav times, he became h...
