september 27th

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southeast europe · a fortnight in review

no.13 / subscription only / 27th september 2012

human rights / The Merčep Trial: of Cynicism & Horror

the industry / State of the Agricultural Nation

event horizon / Kosovo, the International Steering Group, and Organ Trafficking

of interest / A Serbian Permanent Cultural Revolution

in medias res / Slovenian Labour Reform: a Question of Responsibility

Slim Pickings

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september 27th

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www.see-magazine.eu

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content

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26

14

30

37

in medias res

the industry

social economics

in the margin

politics

human interest

human rights

event horizon

legal

to do list

good stuff

introductory epistle

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The EconomyOf General Interest

Slim Pickings

fortnightly news

Exactly what it says. North to South.

Reform or perish. Seldom has this been more true, but...

Involved in R&D? Need funding? Read on.

Exactly how ghastly was the summer drought tally?

Or not? As Croatians ponder the fate of two little known islets.

Is Fahrudin Radončić getting a taste of his own medicine?

And of old-school politicos testifying against the warmonger...

Kosovo free of International tutelage? Rather...

Or will someone finally oust Milo Đukanović?

What is anti-Serbian? Or who? And why? And in whose opinion?

Wine lovers welcome, you won't regret these choices...

eureka's Eurostars Programme: Aim Higher

Slovenian Labour Reform: a Question of Responsibility

State of the Agricultural Nation

Croatia-B&H Border Agreement Ratification

B&H Anti-Crime Offensive: of Puppets & Puppet Masters

The Merčep Trial: of Cynicism and Horror

Kosovo, the International Steering Group, and Organ Trafficking

Montenegrin Parliamentary Elections: Change for Change’s Sake?

A Serbian Permanent Cultural Revolution

Macedonia’s Wines: High Volume & Decent Quality

september 27th

05

Or not? As Croatians ponder the fate of two little known islets.

Wine lovers welcome, you won't regret these choices...

Support in managing innovations

& internationalising

business operationswww.bicro.hr / www.een.hr

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september 27th

07

Austerity, exiguity, leanness, meagerness, meanness, miserliness, parsimony, pu-niness, spareness, stinginess…need we go on with words synonymous to the phrase above? We needn’t. All is clear.Indeed, a small amount is left after others

– or rather other things – have taken their share. The governments, North to South, seem to be pulling somersaults just so as to apply what little political capital they have left. All the money gone, the Slovenians have little choice but to liberalise the labour mar-ket, which is not to say that others in the re-gion shouldn’t do the same. The Croatians are currently preoccupied with ratifying the old Tuđman-Izetbegović border agreement, concerning two deso-late islets no bigger than a modern shopping mall, and may we posit a belief that govern-ments usually have recourse to such initia-tives when other, more pressing issues are better conveniently sidelined for the nonce.In Bosnia the media machinery is still after the tycoon and newborn politico Fahrudin Radončić, whose wealth and fame rather tend to remind the whole population that they indeed have been condemned to aw-fully slim pickings. The Montenegrins, preparing for another ‘historic’ election, won’t have much in the way of choice, at least that is what the polit-ical commentators, who ought to know, are telling us. Again, slim pickings.The new Serbian government, or at least some of its officials, somewhat lost and rec-ognisably feudal, are entertaining the serfs over which they rule with reports of organ trafficking in Kosovo and with publication

Slim Pickings

introductory epistle

editor-in-chief

Igor Dakić

executive editor

Lee Murphy

lee@see-magazine.eu

graphic editor

Ivor Vinski

art editor

Stiv Cinik

country editors

Miša Milošević (Serbia)

Aida Tabaković (b&h)

Sebastijan Maček (Slovenia)

Miroslav Tomas (Croatia)

contributors

Dylan Alexander (Permanent)

Mark Ferrris (Permanent)

Jerko Markovina (Permanent)

Nikola Janović (Legal)

photography

Mens-Libera Photo,

Shutterstock, IStock, Wiki

Commons unless otherwise

specified

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Zavrtnica 17, Zagreb

Croatia

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director

Igor Dakić

igor.dakic@see-magazine.eu

sales & marketing (cro & slo)

Miroslav Tomas

miroslav.tomas@see-magazine.eu

+ 385 95 63 99 702

sales & marketing (serbia)

Milan Milošević

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of curious lists of those who have done Ser-bian culture unmentionable harm…and who themselves are mainly Serbs... As for us, we too found ourselves in a situa-tion which possessed elements which might be cross-referenced with the title above.On Monday morning, September 17th, we saw that the SEE website had been hacked by a group calling themselves 'Serbian Hack-ers', although a statement, “You have been hacked by the Tesla Team,” could also be easily discerned on the see-magazine.eu do-main under a prepossessing Serbian flag and a headline reading “Kosovo je Srbija” (Kos-ovo is Serbian). Initially believing them to be the same group who had caused our site to be considered an 'attack site' by Google, we discovered later in the day that they were in fact an unrelated group, and that they had already attacked several dozen Croatian based websites. The website was recovered, however, and fully functional by Tuesday morning, and it would appear that the attack, though unpleasant, was more of a show of ability than one of malicious intent.And believe me when I say that, without any false modesty whatsoever, if the crew in question could be bothered with the SEE website in the era of Wikileaks and quite se-rious cyberspace terrorist incursions, they too were undoubtedly condemned to some awfully slim pickings.As were we too. Having to get the site up and running again, there was no time to prepare the planned lifestyle topics, the result be-ing an issue eight pages thinner than usual. I know the kind reader will forgive us.

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fortnightly news / the economy

Prevent, a car component producer from Zenica in Bosnia & Herzegovina, have just re-cently sealed a deal with BMW to produce seat upholstery for the BMW 1 and BMW 3 series of vehicles. It is expected that they will be mak-ing enough for 400 cars per day, which will ensure employment for 150 workers. This new contract allows Prevent to remain the coun-try’s premier exporter, a position it has held for the past three years. Prevent also operates as a supplier of several renowned car producers. In addition to their upholstery operation, they also make break discs and safety equipment.

It's not a 'get out of jail' card, but the ruling, or lack thereof, of the German Constitutional Court will surely put the minds of both Gov-ernment and Opposition figures at ease. The ESM (European Stability Mechanism) is to be the European Union's permanent rescue fund, and is meant to ensure that financial difficul-ties, encountered by various member States, can be overcome. The fund needed German involvement as their economy is currently op-erating in surplus, and while many German citizens were opposed to the idea, it will nev-ertheless go ahead. The court refused to block Germany contributing to the ESM, but have in-serted an initial limit of 190 billion Euros - an-ything more than this will require special per-mission. What this means for Slovenia, and perhaps Croatia in due course, is that there will be a fund of 500 billion Euros available should the economic reforms put in place by the Gov-ernment fail to trigger any real recovery. The money is not free, and will need to be paid back, but the main purpose of its existence is to make sure that future global crises can-not have the same impact as the one in 2008.

September has already seen a sharp rise in prices all over the region, with worse yet to come. As a result of the severe summer drought, which devastated crop yields and in-creased the price of livestock forage, the price of fresh meat is set to go up by as much as 30%, with a similar rise expected in associat-ed products. This price hike will have knock-on effects, with the farming community fac-ing an inevitable decline in demand for their products, which will in turn put many breed-ers out of business. Already the new price of fuel, which is the highest in the region, has led to a rise in the cost of sunflower oil, dairy products, chemicals, bread, heating, and pub-lic transportation. Smokers, too, will be affect-ed by the recent excise increases, as their cig-arettes will now cost them that much more. There is already a sunflower oil shortage in some areas as smaller producers are stockpil-ing produce and shoppers are buying all that they can in advance of the eventual shortage.

As a result of a debt, amounting to 8.5 mil-lion Dollars, owed to the Chinese company Si-nochem International by local company En-ergoinvest, Bosnia & Herzegovina is in danger of seeing its gas supply terminated. The High Court in London and the Commercial Court in Zagreb have both ruled that Energoinvest must pay the full amount, which is the sum of the original debt, 3.7 million Dollars, plus inter-est. Energoinvest has thus far pledged to cov-er the original debt and is seeking forgiveness of the interest penalties. Sinochem have re-jected this proposal and have made clear their intention to begin seizure of property and as-sets belonging to Energoinvest, some of which are in Croatia. Sinochem also intend to appeal to the Hungarian judiciary to prevent Bos-nia & Herzegovina from importing Russian gas through their country. If this were to hap-pen, Bosnia & Herzegovina would be relying on what meager reserves they have accumulated.

At the fringe of Aleksandar Vučić's (Serbian Deputy Prime Minister) State trip to Germa-ny there was some very solid business being done. An agreement has been signed between the Serbian Electric Company (EPS) and RWE, a German utility company, regarding stra-tegic co-operation in the future. This agree-ment, which was signed by the acting CEO of EPS, Aleksandar Obradović, and Peter Teri-um, CEO of RWE, consists of two parts. Firstly it references the development of Serbia's hy-droelectric potential, and then the develop-ment of thermal energy power plants - spe-cifically the construction of the Nikola Tesla 3 Power Plant. The ceremony was attended by the German Vice Chancellor, Phillip Rösler, Serbian Energetics Minister Zorana Mihailović and Vice PM Vučić. The leader of the Serbian delegation made note of his country's inclina-tion to realise Nikola Tesla 3 as soon as pos-sible, especially given its vital importance.

German company Bosch has announced that they are to construct a new production plant in Pećinci, which will be worth 70 million Eu-ros, towards the end of September. The first phase of this project is scheduled to start during Q1 2013. The plant is to employ up to 60 workers for a production floor measur-ing of the area of 22,000 square metres. The second phase is scheduled to commence in 2016, to be finished in 2019, and in this pe-riod as many as 600 workers are to be em-ployed. The product in question? The hum-ble windshield wiper and associated systems.

prevent closes deal with bmw

pressures on slovenia might ease

autumn prices shock

b&h at risk of gas shortage

eps & rwe to partner up

bosch moves into serbia

september 27th

09

The ‘will they – won't they’ saga of the Bal-kan business world looks set to continue into another season as it has been rumoured that the proposed takeover, which floundered last year, was on the agenda yet again. Following the expansion of Delhaize Group Sa in the re-gion, it would appear that Agrokor are keen to avoid being left behind. The Mercator takeover was valued at over 1 billion USD back in Febru-ary, but Mercator had been seeking to struc-ture their business model since then, so as to avoid a takeover. All that is certain right now is that this saga is likely to go on until 2013.

The Slovenian retail giant Mercator is consid-ering leaving the Albanian market because of the oversaturation in the marketplace. Merca-tor has only been in the Albanian market since 2009, but already the global crisis has had a large effect on the economy there. With most Albanian emigrants in Italy and Greece, where the Eurocrisis has hit hardest, there is less money coming back into the Albanian econo-my. Mercator has also hinted they will wind up operations in Bulgaria in an effort to rational-ise their business practises. It may also be that Mercator wishes to remove any weaknesses from their portfolio in the wake of a rumour re-garding a renewed takeover bid from Agrokor.

As of October 1, 2012, VAT rates in Serbia will rise from 18% to 20%, while the lower rate, for food and other essential goods, will re-main at 8%. Excise rates on tobacco prod-ucts, as mentioned above, are set to increase by 7.7%. Other changes include higher taxes on diesel, dividends, and bank interest. Ivica Dačić, the Prime Minister, has already assured his citizenry that those who would be most af-fected will be protected, which suggests that salaries and pensions will not be fixed at their current rate, at least not in the near future.

Representatives of the International Monetary Fund were in Belgrade recently, though on-ly for a short visit. They were in town to as-sess the current macroeconomic situation in Serbia, and to look at potential future growth. While there the IMF raised concerns over the Serbian fiscal crises, specifically with respect to the recently adopted laws regarding the Na-tional Bank of Serbia, which are seen to be un-dermining the bank’s autonomy. The new fi-nancial agreement was not on the agenda, but the delegation is expected to return lat-er this year, to offer insight into the upcoming budget. The IMF is not happy with the current half-year budget proposal, in which savings of 20 billion RSD are counterbalanced by an in-crease in expenditure amounting to 25 billion RSD. Pavle Petrović, head of the Serbian Fis-cal Council, noted that relations are already impaired between the IMF and Serbia. The IMF has indicated they would like to see Belgrade act on reducing the deficit and public debt first.

The Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad, and the regional electric company Elektrovo-jvodina have begun work on a project which will result in the installation of a number of electric car chargers, which will span the en-tire Vojvodina region. For the time being this project is entirely conceptual, but those in-volved will soon focus on developing a busi-ness plan. Officials from Elektrovojvodina have already said that their firm has the ca-pability and know-how necessary to pro-vide these road-side chargers, as well as the logistics needed to process payments. Ele-ktrovojvodina say they are looking to pro-vide the region with a sustainable and eco-logically friendly solution for future motorists.

INA has made public the information that a new oil field has been discovered within the already active Privlaka Oil Field near Vinkovci. The new find, which was a result of an explor-atory drill, indicates that there is a substan-tial amount of oil present, at a depth of one thousand metres. It will require further ex-ploration so as fully to gauge both the quan-tity and quality of oil, but INA is confident in the yield, estimating that eventual output will approximate 600 barrels per day. This discov-ery, like INA's previous two finds, has been part of the Croatian oil company's research in the Panonian Basin. INA has invested over 3 million Euros in this new drill site to date.

Alekander Konuzin, the Russian Ambassador to Serbia, has announced that his country will provide a line of credit, totaling 800 million Dollars, to the Balkan state. This line of cred-it was dependent on there being very specif-ic projects identified and available. The overall investment will be centred on the construc-tion of the Southern Gas Pipeline, the produc-tion of heat and electricity facilities, and the chemical industry. The various projects will make use of contractors from outside Serbia as well as domestic sources. The Ambassador, who is nearing the end of his time in Office, has said that he has a positive impression of the new Government, and that he sees them as partners who will work on furthering eco-nomic relations between the two countries.

agrokor/mercator love affair continues

mercator considers leaving albania

serbian vat rates to increase

imf in belgrade

charger network for vojvodina

new oil field discovered near vinkovci

the russo-serbian connection

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fortnightly news / of general interest

Following his return from Brussels, the Ser-bian Deputy Prime Minister has said he ex-pects a date to be set shortly for the begin-ning of EU accession talks. Aleksandar Vučić said that he and the Government will set about implementing various agreements which were reached with Priština during the previous ad-ministration. He then went on to accuse Tadić of trying to buy the election by signing every document put in front him, without any con-cern to who would actually need to deal with the political fallout. When asked whether the Serbian people would be forced to choose be-tween Kosovo and the European Union, the Deputy PM replied that he had not seen any proposal that had suggested as much, al-though he did add that “a referendum is al-ways possible as the last means through which citizens can voice their democratic will”.

Ice fever indeed, as the Zagreb club KHL Medveščak took their base of operations to Pula, on the Istrian Peninsula, for three days of non-stop ice hockey. It was the Arena, no less, which was the venue for this event, the third largest structure of its kind still standing, after those in Rome and Verona. Though or-dinarily used for festival and concert purpos-es, this time round the Arena rather reverted to its ‘original’, more gladiatorial function. Al-though no blood was spilled, and ice replaced sand, the Bears put up a memorable per-formance, such as their name suggests, los-ing to Olympia Ljubljana but getting the better of the Vienna Capitals. What caught the most attention, however, happened on the sec-ond day, as Medveščak’s veteran team took on their counterparts from Gazpromexport, ice hockey’s equivalent of the Harlem Globe-trotters. After the match Alexander Medvedev, President of the Russian KHL league, offered a three year contract to the Croatian Fran-chise, mooting a possible sponsorship deal (10 million Euros per year) which would provide the financing necessary to compete on Rus-sian soil (or ice, as it were). Medveščak offi-cials have already said that, if the deal goes ahead, they will leave their second team to compete in the EBEL in lieu of the first team.

Denis & Denis was the band which ushered Yugoslavia into the electro-pop age, and af-ter an absence of over twenty years, D&D are announcing plans for a new Croatian tour. The duo, comprising of Davor Tolja and Marina Perazić, first came to the attention of the re-gion with their debut album in 1984, taking the charts by storm. Two more albums followed, in 1986 and 1988, but internal pressures took their toll and they parted ways. Perazić tried to make a career as a solo vocalist but failed, while Tolja, who produced the band’s albums, continued on with some success. The reunited duo has announced plans to perform in their native Rijeka on New Year’s Eve, with their na-tionwide tour to follow. SEE will, for the ben-efit of our readers, post some of their videos on our Facebook page and on our Twitter feed.

Keeping with Aleksandar Vučić for the time being, the Deputy Prime Minister has made claims that Farmakom, one of the companies implicated in the Agrobanka affair, was forced to take a stake in Politika, a Serbian news-paper. It is a claim that Miroslav Bogićević, owner of Farmakom, denies vehemently. The idea is that Farmakom were pressured in-to purchasing a controlling stake in Poli-tika in order to save jobs which were at risk.

Slovenia’s Presidential elections are only two months away, and are scheduled to be held on November 11th. Thus far just three candidates have made their intentions to run known; the incumbent Danilo Türk, former Prime Minister Borut Pahor, and MEP Milan Zver. Nomination for a sitting MP or elected official requires the backing of ten of his or her peers, while an in-dependent candidate can gain nomination on the back of 5,000 signatures from the pub-lic. Although Pahor has the necessary back-ing, from the Social Democrats, he has also vowed to gather as many as 3,000 endorse-ments, perhaps in a show of popularity. The main ruling party, the Democrats (SDS), are giving Zver their support, and he also has New Slovenia in his corner. Candidates have un-til October 22nd to withdraw their nomina-tion from the ballot paper. SEE will be report-ing on the elections as the day draws nearer.

It has been reported that the Society of Turk-ish-Croatian Friendship is seeking to re-build the Sultan Suleiman Bridge, which once spanned the River Drava in the city of Osi-jek. The original bridge, which was wood-en, was built in 1526, at a time when Croatia was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. It was burned down in 1686, by the Hapsburgs, following the expulsion of the Turks from Croatian soil. The idea to rebuild the bridge came on the back of a TV show, ‘Suleiman the Magnificent’, and the local tourist or-ganisations are already seeking funding from the European Union for the project, while the Turkish Ambassador to Croatia, Burak Özügergin, has put his full support behind it.

vučić does not rule out referendum

ice fever hits the pula amphitheatre

denis & denis revival?

more tales emerge from the agrobanka

scandal

slovenian presidential elections just around

the corner

building bridges

september 27th

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The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Er-dogan, paid a two day visit to Bosnia & Herze-govina, accompanied by his wife and daughter, as well as a rather impressive delegation. Join-ing the PM were the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Economy, De-fense, Maritime Affairs, and Energy and Natu-ral Resources. Erdogan met with President of the Presidency Bakir Izetbegović, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Vjekoslav Bevanda, as well as with other members of the Presidency, Željko Komšić and Nebojša Radmanović. There were several meetings held, with each mem-ber of the delegation pairing off with their op-posite number. Erdogan stated that he be-lieves in a unified B&H, as a country where all ethnic groups can live in harmony and ul-timately become part of the European Union

– even before Turkey gains membership. The Prime Minister also paid his respects at the grave of Alija Izetbegović, calling him a “wise and persistent man, greatly admired by the Turkish people”. Erdogan was awarded the ti-tle of Honorary President of the Srebrenica Council of Conscience for his support in the construction of the memorial after the 1995 genocide. The Turkish leader was also given a plaque, ‘Isa Beg Isaković’, for his contribu-tions to the preservation of Bosniak culture, during a celebration of the 550th anniversa-ry of the founding of Sarajevo. On a populist note, when addressing the students of Sara-jevo University, Erdogan called for a higher birth rate, saying that “Bosniak couples should have at least five children to make up for the lives lost in the war, and help make Bosnia a young, vibrant, and prosperous society”.

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić was recently in Bosnia & Herzegovina, where he visited both Sarajevo and Banja Luka. It was at the latter that he addressed a gathering of the Social-ist Party faithful, saying that “(our party) nev-er supported war crimes, we never supported genocide, and we never supported the creation of Greater Serbia. We just supported the rights of Serbs wherever they live, here in Bosnia, in Croatia, in Kosovo and Metohija, we were with you when it was the hardest”. He added, how-ever, that he would “do everything for Serbs to live in peace, no matter where they live. I will negotiate a million times, but the interna-tional community needs to know its bounda-ries.” The latter statement is likely a response to German pressure to recognise Srebrenica as an instance of genocide, something which President Nikolić has refused to do so far.

The controversial Mayor of Split is at it again. Calls have been made by a number of Croatian-Serb groups, as well as Croatian MP, the ethnic Serb Milorad Pupovac, to have Kerum prosecuted for hate speech follow-ing his most recent verbal blunders. Željko Kerum, who in the past has uttered such gems as “Serbs should know their place”, and “Serbs never brought anything good to Croatia”, has once more managed to capture the headlines with “Serbs are the source of all problems in Croatia”. Pupovac described this statement as an incitement to ethnic hatred and appealed to the parliament to deal with the situation as they would with any other elected official. Kerum also offered his opinion that Croatian banks and Croatian media companies were controlled by ‘Serbs and Yugoslavs’. Although the above stated can only remind us of those most clichéd anti-Semitic statements, on-ly with Serbs rather than Jews in the leading role, most legal experts conclude that while Kerum’s words were ill-thought-out, and re-pugnant, they do not warrant criminal action.

The ice hockey teams might be flying high but Croatians abroad have been shocked to learn of allegations against Toronto Croatia FC who, it is claimed, fixed football matches during 2009. On that occasion the players in ques-tion were reported to have received $15,000 to allow their opponents to win – even though it is not clear whether their opponents at the time, Attak, were aware of the bribes. Fur-ther allegations have been forthcoming since then, with the Canadian television channel, CBC, broadcasting an investigative documen-tary, identifying the existence of match fix-ing in Croatia, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia.

Contrary to reports in the media Kosovo will not be changing its international dialling code, currently Serbian, to match that of Alba-nia. Reacting to the news that this might be the case, Belgrade issued a formal protest to the International Telecommunications Un-ion, saying that such a move would be illegal, and that Serbia would then lose technical con-trol over voice traffic within the Kosovo terri-tory. However, Belgrade and Priština are quite close to agreeing upon a new, neutral, area code for Kosovo. This agreement is supposed to guarantee uninterrupted service for at least one of Serbia’s mobile operators. The Priština daily newspaper Koha Ditore has reported that Boris Tadić, former Serbian Prime Minis-ter and President, had, while in office, refused to countenance the idea of a new area code for political reasons. Still, despite the cur-rent Serbian Government’s stance on Kosovo, they have proved more flexible on what should be a relatively easy problem to surmount.

waiting for godot: erdogan visits b&h

dačić makes official visit to b&h

kerum in hot water once again

but not all is well in sports…

no country for old dialling codes

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in medias res

We’ve been here before – over the past two decades, succes-sive Governments have made

attempts to reform the Employment Relationships Act, which is a volumi-nous law, based on Yugoslav-era legisla-tion that deals with virtually all aspects of labour rights. Many provisions have been changed but, apart from a signifi-cant overhaul in 2002, they have all fall-en well short of fully fledged reform. This time it may be different; the Government is pushing for solutions which alter the basic tenets of employment contracts. The outcome, whatever it may be, could very well determine the Government’s fate, and Slovenia’s fortunes.

dual labour market

Slovenia is a textbook example of a dual labour market. Older workers, and those in the public sector enjoy relatively high job security and good working conditions, while many in the private sector, partic-ularly youths entering the labour market, are condemned to serial short-term con-tracts which provide little in the way of job security. Indeed, Slovenia has the fifth largest share of workers with contracts of limited duration (about 17%), according to data provided by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office.

Not only has this been a source of inter-generational tensions, it is also a cause of bitter fighting between businessmen who employ the workers, and trade unions who

The Government is lining up what international support it can muster, the trade unions are bracing for a fight which could determine their future

(be it guardian of the working class or irrelevant anachronism), and businesses are sensing the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s time for

labour reform in Slovenia.

Slovenian Labour Reform: a Question of Responsibility

by Sebastijan Maček

seek to protect them . Unionists are bran-dishing the figures from Eurostat to un-derline their fears regarding the ever in-creasing job insecurity in Slovenia, but businesses insist they resort to short-term contracts if only because this avenue gives them, at least, minimum flexibility in ad-justing their workforce to the existing eco-nomic conditions since workers on open-ended contracts are virtually impossible to fire – and when they are, it is very expen-sive for the companies.

the change

The Government wants to change that. Employment contracts of limited duration are out, to be replaced by a single stand-ard contract ostensibly providing greater flexibility as well as security for the work-ers. To achieve that, new contracts would include a two-year “flexible period” dur-ing which it would be easier for a compa-ny to fire a worker. In the first five months of this sort of contract, workers could be let go without cause and with no sever-ance, a period euphemistically called “pro-bation”. Up to the 24th month employ-ers would still have broad discretion in

terminating contracts, whereupon the fir-ing rules would tighten to roughly current levels. Since the rules would apply only to new contracts, the draft legislation intro-duces a provision restricting contracts of limited duration in a company to 10% of the workforce.

Add to that shorter notice periods, low-er severance and unemployment benefits, and many small tweaks required to reduce bureaucracy and make it easier for com-panies to let go of unwanted staff, and the proposal starts to look like genuine reform. It appears to address many of the short-comings of the current system, which has been (sometimes unfairly) described as incredibly rigid and a drag on economic growth. The problem is, nobody seems to like it – and for very different reasons.

It was no surprise that trade unions im-mediately raised their voice. Pergam and ks 90, two big industrial unions, claim that these solutions, as suggested, fail to address the segmentation of the labour market or balance greater flexibility with greater security in the elusive flexicurity equation. Considering the rampant abuse of fixed-term contracts, which are theo-retically limited to three years in a rule that

Janša has repeatedly said that Slovenia will face bankruptcy in October if it does not act.

september 27th

13

buyouts – with disastrous results? Does it risk adopting a law that unions might shoot down at a referendum, or play it safe and hope that this, coupled with a myriad other small-scale measures, will be enough to appease the financial mar-kets? Additionally, talks are starting on a pension reform, a reform that would see the retirement age increased to 65, or require people to work for at least for 40 years. Surprisingly, it appears that it will be easier to implement this particu-lar labour reform, and though it will shore up public finances over the long term, it will not have a short-term impact on the economy, and could even undermine competitiveness.

Slovenia badly needs reform, in order to be seen, by the European Union, the In-ternational Monetary Fund and other or-ganisations, to be serious about turning its fortunes around. The economy is contract-ing and the treasury has been locked out of international financial markets for over a year, unable to refinance Government debt at sustainable levels. Prime Minister Jan-ez Janša has repeatedly said that Slovenia will face bankruptcy in October if it does not act, by which he meant reforms in the labour market as well as pension reform. That would mean having to ask for an eu bailout, which involves not only oodles of money but also far-reaching, and no doubt unpopular, reform measures dictated from the outside.

The outcome may depend on how much everyone realises what is at stake. Slove-nia’s political tradition over the past two decades has been to go slow, avoid major foul-ups and hope for the best, knowing that economic growth is primarily driv-en by exports and heavily dependent on how well Germany fares. This is no long-er an option.

Economist Jože Damijan, despite being a fierce critic of the policies of the Janša Gov-ernment and of Germany’s austerity push, perhaps put it best when he recently said that this was “the final round of negotia-tions, and if we don’t get a package of re-forms that will stabilise public finances and convince international markets to contin-ue lending us money, it means bankrupt-cy at the end of October or early Novem-ber. The Government will step down, the Greek scenario will follow, and from that point on there will be no negotiations, just directives and checklists. The situation is deadly serious.”

is simply bypassed by sending people to the unemployment line for a couple of months to rehire them later, they argue that work-ers will simply be let go after the expiry of the five-month probation.

What was more surprising, though, was the outright rejection of the proposal by corporate bosses and their various associa-tions. Instead of accepting the new stand-ard contract with open hands, as the Gov-ernment appears to have expected, they said it would do nothing to address the underlying problem plaguing business – a lack of competitiveness. In fact, the Man-ager’s Association, an executives’ lobby-ing group, said labour costs would rise. The powerful Chamber of Commerce said that the proposed reform would not achieve the desired effect of improving flexibility, or lead to the lowering labour costs, and would indeed lead to more bureaucracy.

the kerfuffle

The Government’s proposal is by no means final. It is certain to undergo changes as the social partners sit down at the nego-tiating table at the end of September in an attempt to find solutions acceptable to all.

Agreement may, however, prove elusive, as all parties stand to lose a lot.

Businesses, complaining for years about rigid labour law, are unlikely to ac-cept half-baked solutions that will do lit-tle to address actual labour market prob-lems. The unions are pressed against the wall; their mission is to fight for workers’ rights, but there will be nobody around to fight for if companies continue to go under at an alarming pace. Unions have already lost a third of their membership in the past five years, according to a recent survey by the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljublja-na. The degree of unionisation has fallen from over 40% in 1999 to below 25%, as the manufacturing sector has shrunk with the rapid rate of deindustrialisation. The only major union strongholds are the pub-lic sector and the industry, which is rap-idly shrinking, while they barely register in the services sector.

It is the Government, however, which faces the biggest dilemma of all. Does it accept a watered-down version to pla-cate the unions, or does it side with cor-porate bosses, whose credibility has been badly tarnished by the self-interest which drove many to embark on management

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the industry

september 27th

15

It wasn’t just Croatia which suffered in the recent hot weather. As tempera-tures creeped ever higher throughout

the region, crops were dying while the farming community could do naught but watch in horror.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has lost an esti-mated 300 million Euros in damage to their autumn harvest, which will put an inor-dinate pressure upon their already weak-ened economy. 20% of those officially em-ployed work in the agricultural sector, and farming accounts for 10% of the country’s total economic output.

Serbia was hit hardest. Initial estimates are that the damage inflicted was at ap-proximately 1 billion Euros, although a figure which may increase even further, for consequential reasons. Already there

Only those whose heads were buried deep in the sand could have failed to notice the spectacular weather over the months of July

and August. Record temperatures were enjoyed by all, and tourist numbers soared. Yet while we were all dipping our feet in the

Adriatic, the farmers who toiled inland were not having a great time of it all. Crop failure due to drought has threatened to shake the

farming community, and has already caused prices to rise. Is someone to blame? Can a repeat be avoided? This farmer,

turned journalist, takes a look.

State of the Agricultural Nation

by Lee Murphy

have been calls to place a ban upon the ex-port of what little corn and sunflower oil remains, so as to ensure that the domestic market does not experience any noticea-ble shortages. It’s all the worse for them as Kosovo, which no longer exports to Ser-bia, also suffered a 20% loss in crop yield

– a disaster for the already feeble Kosovo economy, but ordinarily the remainder would have had an eager, and lucrative, market in Belgrade.

Croatia has suffered almost modest loss-es by comparison, coming in at under 250 million Euros, but, like Bosnia and Herze-govina, and Serbia before them, the ex-pected yield this autumn is almost half that of 2011, with the corn crop almost entire-ly destroyed. Commentators have sought to spread the blame for events, querying

whether it was an Act of God, a failure on the part of the Government, or a result of lethargic farmers, not overly keen to mod-ernise their holdings? The answer is rath-er simple, if somewhat disappointing: they are all to blame.

irrigation what?

Rainfall for the months of July and August was 90% below mean levels, but it might be a touch indecent to consider some-thing that took place over a mere eight weeks to be an Act of God. The Govern-ments, too, have played their part in this calamitous situation. In May of this year the World Bank approved a loan, for Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the sum of 30 mil-lion Euros, money intended to upgrade the

In every country in this region policies and strategies are juggled, shelved, and rehashed, all depending on who is in power.

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country’s irrigation systems. Holger Kray, the World Bank’s Chief Officer for Agricul-ture and Rural Development in Europe and Central Asia, commented that “Yugoslavia used to have one of the most advanced irri-gation and drainage systems. Unfortunate-ly, these systems have degraded. This is not only about functional budgetary shortag-es but also frequent turnover in the man-agement of these systems.”

In short, these things primarily hap-pen because of a lack of continuity within the political arena, and not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In every country in this region policies and strategies are juggled, shelved, and rehashed, all depending on who is in power, always looking to the near future, to the next election, rather then to the long-term security of the economy.

The farmers themselves do not get a pass either. While it is truly tragic for those families who were relying upon their corn crop, or sunflower crop, in order to make it through to the next planting season, it cannot be ignored that they have chosen to accept antiquated operating models for too long now. It is this author’s opinion that agriculture throughout the region needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming, if need be, into the 21st century; the worry is that so many husbandries are still far re-moved from the 20th.

Many farmers have put themselves in a habitual rut, preferring to thrust a famil-iar routine, handed down through gener-ations, rather than to trust themselves to-wards the (technologically more advanced) unknown. This must change if they wish to remain – or finally start – tilling the land in a profitable fashion. changes in personnel within Government

and State bodies, and more recently the global financial crisis. We would love to re-port on future policies set in motion by the various Ministries responsible, so as to help prevent future failures, but for whatever reason they saw it fit to remain silent, de-spite our repeated attempts at inquiry (at least once arriving at the Ministry lobby, hoping to doorstop an official). In a mo-ment of cynicism, this author must believe that this was because there are, as yet, no concrete solutions in place.

It is not hard to think that the public backlash in the face of the large figures, as listed above, could have been avoid-ed if a more integrated approach to ag-riculture had already been in operation. Serbia, whose total losses may well ex-ceed 2 billion Euros once ancillary costs

Damir Kovačić, lecturer in Agricultural Marketing at Zagreb University does not pull any punches: “We are paying for the lack of systematic agricultural policy over the past 20 or even 50 years, and yet we're always surprised when the drought hits in the summer.” Drought is not something which happens overnight, the way a hur-ricane might lash coastal towns and vil-lages, nor is it something which cannot be predicted, at least not under normal circumstances.

the awful tally

It would, however, be unfair simply to blame everyone in isolation. There are sev-eral reasons as to why circumstances are as they are – the break-up of Yugoslavia, the war which followed, all too frequent

Many farmers have put

themselves in a rut, rather than

thrust themselves towards

the unknown.

september 27th

17

are calculated, could have spent 2.5 bil-lion Euros to upgrade the irrigation sys-tems of the entire country. In the end they will need to spend an equivalent sum but, as is traditional in such instances, the sta-ble gate has yet to be shut, even though the horse has long gone.

Croatia, of the three countries men-tioned, has the greatest potential for re-covery, but certainly not as a result of any grand scheme, particularly courtesy of the political elite. Rather, it is all because of the impending eu membership. Once Croatia becomes the 28th member of the Europe-an Union it will have access to a number of structural funds, funds enough to restruc-ture the agricultural sector to a level capa-ble of competing in a wider market. Good news surely, but there still remains the question as to whether the country would

be able to utilise these funds in an adequate, if not entirely competent, manner.

where there’s a will...

There are many stories of individual woe arising from the drought which afflicted the region only last month. There are al-so some stories which give cause for hope. One such story is that of Ivan Lovaković, who hails from the Slavonian village of Feričanci.

Although having invested only 20,000 Euros, Mr. Lovaković has managed to turn seven acres into an orchard, which has seen a yield comparable to that of the best orchards across the European Un-ion. Applying new technologies availa-ble to him, such as an irrigation drip sys-tem, and an anti-ice system for the colder weather, he realised a yield of approxi-mately 175 tonnes of fruit, of which 90% were classified First Class, which is on par with the European average. Even more im-pressive is the fact that this orchard is only 16 months old. When Mate Brlosić, of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture, says that it will take several years for the vineyards and orchards affected by the weather to recover and begin producing at expected levels again, the contrasts become all the more evident.

The green fingered Slavonian said that he “did not want to leave things to chance. The latest technology, also employed in Europe and around the World, is used in my orchard. I have modern machinery, and yes that costs money, but it is worth it.” With almost 200 tonnes after just 16 months in existence it certainly appears worth it, and then some.

Mr Lovaković, although a sprightly 65 years young, holds a Masters degree in Economics, and he is of the clear opinion that a change in mentality is necessary for other farmers to turn around their for-tunes: “failure can happen when you take a bad approach to things, but if you have the will, and the desire to work, and the patience to invest long-term; if you have the will to work, often painstakingly, from early morning to late at night, and are per-sistent, then excellence will follow. You cannot do this half-heartedly and expect success, or to become wealthy; it does not work that way. Unfortunately too many farmers are buying cars instead of equip-ment that they need. I drive an eighteen year old Alfa Romeo and the thought that

Ivan Lovaković has managed

to turn seven acres into an orchard, which has seen

a yield comparable to that of

Europe's best.

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18

How do you solve a problem like B&H?

Bosnia and Herzegovina has 1.5 million hec-

tares of arable land, but of that vast amount only

18,000 hectares are irrigated. It would seem ob-

vious to blame this disparity upon the war which

ravaged the country during the 1990s, and while

much of what existed prior to 1990 was indeed

destroyed, there were only approximately 10,000

hectares suitably irrigated. Bosnia and Herze-

govina’s water table suggests that the country

could be irrigated to a high level, but most of the

rivers and streams tend to have overly high lev-

els during periods of rain, and also as a result of

snow melt, which provokes flooding at locations

prone to such events.

During the dry periods, such as we experienced

this summer, the water table is too low to even

enable the biological minimum in some streams

and smaller rivers. Professor Hamid Ćustović,

from the Agricultural Faculty at the University of

Sarajevo, believes that action must be taken if the

nation’s agriculture is to be saved. He notes that

the construction of several reservoirs would pro-

vide the necessary irrigation capacity to serv-

ice 200,000 hectares of lowlands, and 150,000

hectares of upland area, but as the Government

cannot agree on anything this, plan has been left

unexecuted.

A drought does not occur overnight, and B&H is

no different in this regard. The months of Octo-

ber through May see evaporation more than ac-

counted for by precipitation, while June usually

sees the soil drawing up the excess water de-

posits from the prior period. July and August are

the driest months, and on occasion September

can mirror those conditions. Given that this is an

identified cycle, and one unlikely to alter too rad-

ically, the Professor feels that steps could be tak-

en to avoid future crop failures.

“We should be modifying our crop rotation, to

bring it into line with the natural soil-water re-

gime. This means the introduction of more ‘win-

ter crops’ such as wheat, rye, and rape seed. Cur-

rently our system is entirely reliant on there not

being a drought during the summer months. We

should be pickier when selecting which varieties

to plant – there are certain crops, certain species,

which are more drought resistant. The utilisation

of windbreakers would also result in less mois-

ture being taken from the soil, especially during

the July-August period, when the winds can be at

their driest.” The professor also thinks that edu-

cation is key for the farming community:

“Social awareness about the drought and its ef-

fects should be more widespread and systems

should be put in place to let others know when

their crops might be at risk. It doesn’t stop there

either; drainage, especially of heavy soils, is

more important than you might realise. Drained

soils allow for an earlier plant, and this in turn

allows your crop to develop deeper roots, thus

allowing it to take up more water during the

dry period. For every one day of delay in plant-

ing your crop, there is a one percent decrease

in yield.”

Alas, the Professor and his team can only dream,

because for as long as there is no coordinated

strategy on the ground, there will be no develop-

ment on a local, regional, or national level.

I could buy a new, luxury, car, does not cross my mind”.

lacking in competencies?

While the current Croatian Minister of Ag-riculture, Tihomir Jakovina, is certainly qualified for his position, at least on paper, his recent statements cast a shadow upon his grasp of the entire situation. He has said that he is considering the lifting of fees on the lease of agricultural lands, while also increasing export duties on the export of grain and corn. While the latter will, much like in Serbia, help ensure there is at least some supply of cereal (it would no long-er be immediately profitable to sell outside the country), it does not address the great-er problem. If this is the response from the Ministry, then it might be time for a change of personnel – somewhat ironic given the lack of strategy caused by overly frequent personnel shuffles in years past. The Prime Minister, Zoran Milanović, has already in-formed the farming community that there will be no funding available to them, be-cause the State has no money to give, and that they will now look at investing in irri-gation systems to avoid a repeat in the fu-ture. In the meantime, he said, the farmers would have to look after themselves. The main goal, said the Prime Minister, was to have as many as 200,000 hectares irrigat-ed by 2020, eight years from now.

The reach of this crisis is not yet ful-ly felt. Farmers may have lost their crops, but the bakers will still need to source their wheat from somewhere; the brewers will need their barley and their hops; livestock breeders will need fodder and straw; and the wineries will still need grapes. There has long been a wheat shortage on an in-ternational scale so we can be sure that the price of bread will see another increase in the near future. Also, as cattle cost more to feed, then so too will their meat cost more.

Mate Brlosić, our friend from the Chamber of Agriculture, has already said that the vineyards and orchards will take years to recover. What then of the cattle herds, underfed and unable to reproduce at a healthy, sustainable level? Some farmers have already been forced to abandon their profession, as they can no longer provide for themselves or their families. Brlosić said that this year “corn will be as rare as gold”. The farmers would rather they had fields of corn than pots of gold – at least you can eat the former.

september 27th

19

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20

social economics

Eurostars Programme is a European Joint Programme dedicated to SMEs which engage in Research & Devel-

opment related activities, and co-funded by the European Communities and 33 eu-reka member countries.

The main objective of the programme is to stimulate smes to lead international col-laborative research and innovation projects, by easing access to support and funding. It is fine-tuned to focus on the needs of smes, specifically targeting the development of new products, processes and services and the access to transnational and internation-al markets. Through this joint Programme, based on Article 185 of the Lisbon Treaty, Eurostars aims to combine the best of two worlds with a bottom-up approach, a cen-tral submission and evaluation process, and synchronised national funding.

On the practical side of things, before we proceed, we must mention that, in or-der to qualify for the project, a consortium must involve at least two project partici-pants from two Eurostars member coun-tries. Also, r&d-performing sme(s) will undertake at least 50% of total r&d project costs, moreover in a balanced partnership whereby no partner or country will cover more than 75% of total project costs.

eurostars on home turf

Although Eurostars, as a joint initiative of eureka and the European Commission was first launched back in 2008, Croatia

Want to be a star? Want to be a European star? No, this article is neither about reality TV nor any one of those shows that all networks have abounded in

over this past decade. This article is about a very serious European incentives programme intended for those operating within the realm of r&d. Have an idea

and the know-how? Find a partner (or partners), apply, and collect.

eureka's Eurostars Programme: Aim Higher

by Mark Ferris

joined the programme in 2011, with the implementing body - or agency - being bicro, the Croatian agency in charge of innovations. The projects are financed by member states, while the European Com-mission participates in the public aspect of co-financing.

Antonija Mršić, Chairwoman of the sub-committee for the promotion of Eurostars, steps in to clarify a few things right off the bat: "The programme is intended for smes, but we must stress the fact that Eurostars does not discriminate between business-es. Any area of technology would qualify, so long as the companies in question per-form r&d."

On average, approximately 350 differ-ent projects apply per each tender, and those that are accepted, following the so called central technological evaluation, have two years to place their product or service on to the market. The only excep-tions to this rule are projects hailing from the fields of biomedicine and the pharma-ceutical industry, for which the 'deadline' may be extended.

As for, more specifically, the 'regional' angle, Croatia as well as other countries in the region stand to benefit from a form of positive discrimination, or affirmative action, if you will, which will in the fu-ture open up a huge window of opportu-nity for many.

"Given that one of Eurostars' main goals," continues Mršić, "is to achieve balanced representation amongst member states,

EUREKA & BICRO

EUROSTARS

EUREKA, the European network for mar-

ket oriented research and development,

was founded in 1985 with the aim of fos-

tering transnational cooperation and

boosting European competitiveness . The

expected results of projects support-

ed by Eureka primarily involve the crea-

tion of advanced technologies which will

be able to find their place in the mar-

ket. BICRO, the Croatian agency in charge

of business innovations, has been re-

sponsible for the implementation of EU-

REKA’s programmes since May 2012.

Main Site

www.eurostars-eureka.eu/

Registration/Applications

www.eurostars-eureka.eu/home.do

Technical Expertise (evaluators)

experts.eurostars-eureka.eu/

experts/newRequest

september 27th

21

which were five times higher than original-ly expected. When designing the Eurostars 1 Programme, 150 applications were expected to be submitted per year. However, the r&d performing smes of Europe are increasing-ly seeing Eurostars as one of the best plat-forms for international cooperation. This is clearly reflected in the steady increase in the number of applications: 215 applications were received in 2008, 317 in 2009, 595 in 2010 and 745 in 2011.

Based on the preliminary impact reports received from Eurostars 1 participants, the leverage effect of the Programme is sub-stantial. With 1 million € of public funds, 9.8 million € of additional turnover is ex-pected. As a result, with 520 million € of public funds forecast for the whole dura-tion of the Programme, Eurostars 1 is es-timated to boost European gdp by 5.1 bil-lion €.

And, by way of an end note, Turkey, the country currently presiding over the eu-reka programme, will be staging in Oc-tober the Global Venture Forum, the pur-pose of which is to assemble in one place (Istanbul) investors and companies from world round. Not only eureka and Eu-rostars partners and users, but all inter-ested parties.

… for the whole duration of the Programme, Eurostars 1 is estimated to boost European gdp by 5.1 billion €.

both Croatia and other countries in the region, all having a comparatively lower number of r&d companies, will have plen-ty of space in which to manoeuvre. Also, we must not forget that the current situa-tion is a result of the fact that many com-panies do not consider themselves to be an acceptable candidate because they are not, technically speaking, 'r&d perform-ing smes'...in a programme based on the formation of consortiums, such as Euros-tars, only the main partner, or 'the carri-er of the project', as it were, must be an r&d company. Other, 'regular' companies can also participate and aid in the project with their complementary capabilities: ac-cess to the market, distribution network, production process related know-how, strength in monetisation… in fact, those 'regular' companies' further stand to im-prove their capacities to absorb new tech-nologies and pave the way for transitioning from 'low-tech' to 'high-tech' and finally get involved in real r&d activities."

good things to come

In terms of project evaluation the new 2014-2012 financial cycle will put even more stress on monetisation and all oth-er market related aspects. The structure of applicant consortiums should be such as to ensure that all segments of the project are equally well covered, not only those per-taining to technological innovations.

This next step, baptised Eurostars 2, will envelop all r&d programmes into one sin-gle schematic, called 'Horizon 2020'. The eureka Secretariat and member states are currently negotiating with the Euro-pean Commission as to the design of the future programme as well as the budget to be allocated for Eurostars by the ec. The eu contribution to the Eurostars 2 Pro-gramme, managed by the eureka Secre-tariat, will be a flexible budget but with a fixed funding percentage, which can be up to 33% of the total public funding.

The so called 'Eurostars 2 Budapest Document', which defines the future programme's aims, defines smes as 'the

backbone of the European economy, es-pecially r&d performing smes which play a central role in increasing competitiveness and boosting job creation in Europe. r&d performing smes are characterised by be-ing innovative, fast to commercialise new products and services and they are often

“born global” in terms of research cooper-ation and sales. Creating the best possible framework conditions for cooperation be-tween such companies must be a top prior-ity for national innovation policy as well as for Horizon 2020." Indeed, Europe appears to be taking its R&D future very serious-ly, and is willing to do something about it.

brick by brick

Naturally companies, by participating in a project, share both the risks and poten-tial benefits with their partners, including ownership of intellectual property. New knowledge is acquired, new products and services launched, new markets opened. As in most instances when quality, stand-ardised evaluation methods are used, po-tential investors are much easier to talk to.

In retrospect, the success of the Eurostars 1 is notably reflected in the high quality and substantial number of applications received,

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22

Croatia-B&H Border Agreement Ratification

pm Zoran Milanović’s Government has finally decided that the time has come to tackle a thirteen year old agreement, and in doing so has already

turned the political arena on its head. As the debate rages on, the pm finds himself, by choice, changing his rhetoric and standing up for former

President Tuđman, once scorned by his party.

The agreement of which the intro-duction speaks is the border agree-ment, signed in Sarajevo on July 30th,

1999, by the late Presidents Tuđman and Izetbegović, on behalf of Croatia and b&h, respectively. The intention of this political instrument was finally to define the border between the two countries. Once both men had put their names to paper, all that was left was for the Croatian parliament to ratify it, which did not happen. In the intervening years, it was only given cursory attention by the hdz Governments, but now tempers are somewhat strained, as current pm Zoran Milanović announced, in July, that he in-tends to seek that elusive ratification.

Long forgotten – or simply ignored – as it was, this recent move by Milanović’s sdp has given rise to a flurry of accusations, many claiming that the Prime Minister was blasé about what amounts to relinquishing con-trol over a part, however small, of Croatian territory. Many qualms came from hdz, the same party whose late President, Fran-jo Tuđman, was the exact same man who originally signed the document.

The border agreement from 1999. confirms the post ww ii avnoj (Anti-Fascist Council of the People’s Liberation of Yugoslavia) bor-der between the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and b&h, as regulated by the find-ings of the Badinter Arbitration Commission, which acted under the auspices of the Yugo-slavia Peace Conference in 1991. The Badin-ter Commission made a finding summed in fifteen points, one of which dictates that the former borders between the Yugoslav repub-lics will become state borders, which can only be changed by compromise and not by force.

legal

In his first address of the autumnal ses-sion, pm Milanović stated that he was go-ing to seek a two-thirds majority, even though he believed that “a regular major-ity is within the Constitutional require-ments for ratification.” The Prime Minis-ter then called on representatives of hdz, who are currently opposing the ratifica-tion, reminding them that it was their own party that had moved to ratify the same agreement on no less than two previous occasions, the most recent being in 2010.

Tomislav Karamarko, the new, recent-ly elected hdz President and hence Oppo-sition leader, stated that the ratification, “if seemingly of little consequence now, might aggravate relations between the two coun-tries further down the line.” It is difficult to say exactly what he meant by it.

While it is no surprise that politicians are looking to gain points over what is ultimately only a sliver of land, it is slightly hypocritical of hdz given their prior position. Milanović found himself lauding a hdz hero when he said that former President Tuđman was “not a dried up old man, but a leader who knew what he was doing”, at which point hdz ac-cused the Prime Minister of mocking their former leader.

In any event, this is not a one sided issue: ratification by the Parliamentary Assem-bly of b&h is also outstanding, and even if Milanović manages to obtain the two-thirds of the vote that he needs, things might still not get ahead. The agreement calls for con-cessions in the Una river valley, and given that this land lies within the territory of Re-publika Srpska, it is highly unlikely they will agree to anything of the sort. Then again…

The issue at hand pertains to islets Veliki and Mali Škoj and the tip of the Klek pe-ninsula, and dates back to 1974, when the b&h border was changed based on a ca-dastral survey performed by a b&h Cadas-tre Office , and according to which previ-ously Croatian territory fell to b&h. Since the change affected a small portion of un-inhabited territory, and made no de facto difference, the matter raised no problem at that time. It must, however, be noted that the border change was never ratified by the parliaments either of the Socialist Republics of Croatia or b&h. As of late, it has been suggested that the cadastral sur-vey of 1974 is a forgery, thus making the border correction illegal. In that respect, the matter in dispute now concerns the legality of the avnoj border after 1974.

As this new debate progressed, it be-came clear as to what the expected outcome would be: b&h would retain control of the tip of the Klek Peninsula, as well as the two uninhabited islets of Veliki and Mali Škoj, approximately 58,000 square metres in size, but Croatia would, in turn, get 72,000 square metres in the Una river valley.

By Dylan Alexander

september 27th

23

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24

in the margin

Over the past fortnight the b&h police have been taking action against organised crime, and the

operation in question, codenamed ‘Pup-pet’, has been described as the largest un-dertaking of its sort in the history of Bos-nia & Herzegovina’s law enforcement. It has dredged up old allegations of Fahru-din Radončić and connections he might have with Naser Keljmendi, who is often described as being the ‘top drug lord of the Balkans’.

So far the operation has led to the ar-rest of 25 individuals, who are apparent-ly members of as many as three differ-ent crime groups, in relation to extortion, trafficking, the illegal drugs trade, robbery, and murder. All of this points to Keljmen-di, who remains at large – in spite of a re-gion-wide manhunt for him still ongoing.

on with it...

The courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina have ordered that 18 of the 25 be detained for at least a month, on account of the severity of the charges facing them and the risk of tampering with witnesses. In addition to the general charges against the gathered detainees, there is also the question of the murder of one Ramiz Delalić Ćelo, a known figure in the Sarajevo underground who served as Commander of the 9th Mountain Brigade of the b&h Army during the war.

Delalić Ćelo is considered to be respon-sible for the shooting of an ethnic Serb groom at a Baščaršija wedding in March of 1992, which many Serbs see as the event

The regional elections are on the horizon, but controversy is never far from Fahrudin Radončić and the Union for a Better Future (sbb). Rumors abound,

connecting him to various figures from the organised crime milieu, and it remains to be seen whether he can spin his way out of this mess.

B&H Anti-Crime Offensive: of Puppets & Puppet Masters

by Igor Dakić

which sparked off the Serb ‘insurrec-tion’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely in the Sarajevo region. The former Com-mander was himself murdered, execu-tion style, in 2007, with members of the Albanian underground being prime sus-pects in the shooting. What is most in-strumental here, however, is an open let-ter which was published several weeks ago by the daily Oslobođenje, in which Šejla Sunko Turković, a Sarajevo journalist (for-merly employed by Radončić’s Avaz), and the wife of Zijad Turković, a convicted or-ganised crime figure, explicitly named the ubiquitous Radončić as being the man who ordered the murder of Delalić Ćelo, and further implicated him in dealings with Keljmendi, something which the me-dia mogul strenuously denied on several occasions.

The director of sipa (State Investiga-tion and Protection Agency), Goran Zubac, stated that the operation marks 'the begin-ning of an end to organised crime in b&h'. The statement was of course greeted as a breach of the presumption of innocence by the detainees’ attorneys, who continued to argue that operation 'Puppet' is nothing more than a pre-election ploy. Zubac fur-ther stated that the investigation included

surveillance of 43 organized crime figures, some of whom still remain at large and are presumed to have fled to neighbour-ing countries, namely Serbia, Montene-gro and Kosovo. Even an Interpol bolo has been issued for the arrest of several sus-pects, amongst them the aforementioned Naser Keljmendi, who, for his part, is pre-sumed to have fled to Kosovo.

Whatever else may be the case, the op-eration was greeted as a 'huge step forward and a turning point in battling organised crime as a direct fruit of cooperation be-tween regional police forces, as agreed at a recent Sarajevo meeting, especially in light of the fact that regional criminals have never stopped their mutual cooper-ation'. The abovesaid was stated recent-ly in Budva by Jelko Kacin, European Par-liament's Rapporteur for Western Balkans.

a few questions

It is not unreasonable to suggest that, when it comes to politics, control of the media is paramount. This truism, as it might as well be, can describe the current state of affairs within b&h politics quite neatly, without any need for exaggeration. Indeed, like so many things, exaggeration in this arena

Now that he is in power, Radončić is getting a little taste of his own medicine.

september 27th

25

is very much unnecessary, with so much of the socio-political phenomena already overly exaggerated in their own right. In this respect Fahrudin Radončić, the latest Bosniak political superstar, should be con-sidered a man of not inconsiderable power, since he controls one of the largest media operations within the country – the daily Avaz newspaper.

Avaz is a newspaper which, over the course of its existence, has made a name for itself by calling out the ruling elite (specif-ically sda – Party of Democratic Action) for transgressions committed, and now finds itself promulgating the relatively recently formed coalition between Radončić’s sbb and sdp – the Social Democrats. That said, it is hardly surprising that, now that he is in power, Radončić should be getting a lit-tle taste of his own medicine. Grave accu-sations against him have been made, the types of accusations which must be an-swered, but it is difficult to shirk the im-pression that he is currently the object of a smear campaign. Is he innocent? He is cer-tainly guilty of something, if not perforce the things he currently stands accused of: one does not get to where Radončić, espe-cially in the Balkans, by playing nice.

As for the operation, it remains unclear as to what is behind operation 'Puppet', or rather what was it that triggered police in-volvement of this magnitude. One would like to believe that the Police are finally going on about their business and taking action as they should – that times indeed have changed in b&h as well and that, to use the delightful phrase all regional poli-ticians seem to be so fond of, ‘the institu-tions are (finally) doing their job’. In any event, it is nice to see all these different na-tional police forces cooperate on that level.

Or, as already stated, is it all a pre-elec-tion ploy? If so, two scenarios are the most likely: sda, technically in opposition (one can never be too sure in b&h), might be go-ing after what they perceive to be a weak-er link in the ruling sdb-sbb coalition; or the ruling coalition itself might be making moves so as to clear the name of their lat-est poster-boy. Or perhaps it is something much more complicated than that.

Still, all said and done, it remains to be seen as to how all of this will unfold, and whether the ‘criminal’ stain will be re-moved from Radončić’s person. We rather suspect that the conspiracy theorists will have material enough to keep them happy for quite some time to come.

Fahrudin Radončić

Fahrudin Radončić was born in Berane, Mon-

tenegro, on May 24th, 1957. At the age of 19 he

became a professional journalist and by 23 he

was the youngest Editor-In-Chief of any Yu-

goslav newspaper. With the rise of Slobodan

Milošević in the latter half of the 1980s Radončić

felt compelled to write a number of texts which

criticised the Yugoslav leader’s politics as being

fascist, criminal, and pro-Serbian. As a result

Radončić was persecuted by the establishment

and lost his position as editor. He continued to

work as a correspondent and political analyst

for Danas, a publication which was known for its

opposition to the Nationalist policies emanat-

ing from Belgrade. In 1990 Radončić published

a book which advocated independence of Kos-

ovo, something that is relatively controversial to

this day. A year later he moved to Sarajevo and

founded Avaz Publishing, which would become

the largest publishing company in Bosnian his-

tory. He joined the inner circle which had gath-

ered around Dr. Rusmir Mahmutčehajić, the grey

eminence of the then-fledgling SDA, instrumen-

tal in the plans for B&H independence. He joined

the Army of B&H from the moment it came in-

to existence, and served as a member of the Su-

preme Command Cabinet, spending the entirety

of the war in Sarajevo, during which time he lost

several members of his family.

In 1995 Radončić started the daily newspa-

per Dnevni Avaz, which became the most

influential Bosnian print medium, surpassing

even Oslobođenje. The newspaper advocated

the struggle against corruption and fought for

the protection of citizens from repression and

abuse of power. Radončić had a (then quite

rare) policy of reinvesting his profits into do-

mestic development projects, and it was he

who built one of the first large scale projects in

post-war Sarajevo – now the HQ of Hypo Bank.

Expanding his construction enterprise Radončić

developed projects throughout the country,

and his portfolio now includes the 5 Star Radon

Plaza Hotel in Sarajevo and the Avaz Twist Tow-

er, which stands 175 metres high and has been

counted, by several international publications,

amongst the ten most beautiful buildings in the

World.

In 2009 Radončić took his most important

step into the world of politics when he found-

ed the Alliance for a Better Future for Bosnia

and Herzegovina. They are a centre-right, but

in terms of ethnic discourse moderate, Bos-

niak party advocating economic development,

the fight against corruption, religious liberties,

and accession to NATO and the European Un-

ion. In the 2010 elections SBB won four seats

in the House of Representatives of the Parlia-

ment of B&H and thirteen seats in the House of

Representatives of the Federation Parliament.

Radončić placed second in the race for the Bos-

niak member of the Presidency, polling 32%.

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26

Merčep. Tomislav Merčep. Long was the arm of the law (though, let us give the man the benefit

of the doubt, as he hasn’t been convicted yet) – or justice if you will – but back in February he finally found himself in the Courtroom, charged for war crimes com-mitted by a semi-paramilitary unit sec-onded to the Croatian Ministry of the In-terior at the start of the hostilities of the 1990s. It is not until these days, how-ever, as high ranking officials from 1991 come forward to present their informa-tion, damning or otherwise, that things started heating up.

As a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (hdz), it fell to Merčep to aid in the organisation of the defense of Vukovar, al-though he was relieved of his post in August

The Zagreb County Court sees the continuation of proceedings against Tomislav Merčep, the former advisor to the Minister of

the Interior, who has been indicted for war crimes against civilians. As the witnesses offer up their testimonies, the grim realities

of 1991 unfold before all. Yet again...

The Merčep Trial: of Cynicism and Horror

by Miroslav Tomas

of 1991 due to numerous transgressions. He was reassigned to the Istrian region, but only to re-emerge in Zagreb with a motley crew in tow, comprised mainly of crimi-nals and extremists. This group would act as a reserve unit of the Croatian police force, but, as there was no clear chain of com-mand, nor any parliamentary oversight, the group gained the moniker ‘Merčepovci’. Before long they began rounding up ethnic Serb civilians, in what some have argued was counter-intelligence work; howev-er, too many of those arrested were in fact successful entrepreneurs – or ‘well to do’ Serbs, if you will – likely targeted for the purposes of a ‘shakedown’, or racketeer-ing. Or some sort of retribution.

Merčep himself, or rather his nefari-ous and shadowy reputation, was used as

a means to boost moral within the defence forces and as a tool for psychological war-fare; rumours were already running rife of illegal detention centres located at Zagreb Fairgrounds (which was also the group’s base of operations), and at Pakračka Pol-jana. With the murder of the Zec family in late 1991, the establishment had lost at least a measure of its patience: the par-amilitary unit was disbanded, or rather merged into the regular Croatian army. Merčep would go on to serve as an advi-sor to the Minister of the Interior, a post he held until 1997. What followed were a number of political appointments, af-ter which he somewhat dropped off the map, the public mainly wandering, if they did at all, why is it that he hadn’t been in-dicted yet.

details, details...

Merčep has been charged with ordering and/or command responsibility for the illegal detention of 52 people, 43 of whom who have been murdered: three individ-uals are still unaccounted for, while six survived their incarceration and torture. Merčep had been held in detention since December of 2010 until July of this year, but he was released to house arrest due to poor health. Thus far we’ve seen tes-timonies from former members of the

As a member of hdz, it fell to Merčep to aid in the organisation of the defense of

Vukovar, although he was relieved of his post due to numerous transgressions.

human rights

september 27th

27

and Security Agency). He told the court that both he and President Tuđman be-came aware of the illegal detention centres during November of 1991, but that they did not act on this knowledge until after the Zec family had met their untimely fate. Af-ter these tragic events Ivan Vekić, the then Minister of the Interior, ordered an inves-tigation into the murders, although at the time the identities of the culprits were not yet known, or at least so Vekić said.

Manolić, for his part, continued by say-ing that President Tuđman had put a con-dition, at the time, upon Merčep’s ap-pointment as mp – Merčep would have to divulge the identity of the guilty par-ty, or parties. It is from this moment on, concerning Manolić’s testimony, that one would have to read between the lines. The old pm stated that he was not privy to further discussion between Tuđman and Merčep, merely that Tuđman relat-ed to him at a certain point that Merčep would not be prosecuted for the murders and would sit in parliament. But murders there were, and the Government, includ-ing Tuđman, knew about them.

Naturally, then, Manolić was grilled further. He was asked as to why no legal action had been taken against Merčep at the time, and in his reply he noted that Merčep’s apparent immunity had been a political decision, as any prosecution dur-ing the war would have tarnished morale and ultimately helped the enemy. The former Prime Minister continued by stat-ing that Merčep, if anything, was a traitor to Croatia for refusing to lead his troops in an attempt to break the siege of Vukovar.

a macabre lesson

One cannot escape from the impression that Manolić’s testimony was somewhat cynical, but that was the order of the day

Merčep’s apparent immunity had been a political decision, as any prosecution during the war would have tarnished

morale and ultimately helped the enemy.

Tomislav Merčep

Merčep was born in Borovo Naselje, a suburb

of Vukovar, on the 28th of September, 1952. By

profession he is a construction engineer, hav-

ing received his degree from the Vukovar Poly-

technic. He entered into politics in 1991, being

elected to the Vukovar City Council on HDZ’s list,

whereupon he became the Secretary of Defence

within the Municipal Government. Following re-

ports of the harassment of the ethnic Serb ci-

vilian population in Vukovar, he was relieved of

his duties and transferred to Zagreb, where he

found himself appointed as an advisor to the of-

fice of the Minister of the Interior. He served as

MP in the House of Representatives, as well as

in the House of Counties of the Croatian Par-

liament, back in those days when Croatia still

had bicameral legislation. In 1995 Merčep first

clashed with President Tuđman over charges

involving the formation of illegal terror groups,

and he finally left HDZ in 1997, when he won

two seats in the Vukovar City Council, as an in-

dependent, in the local election. He would sub-

sequently form HPS (Hrvatska pučka stranka, or

the Croatian Folk Party), which would not have

much success in the long run. In that same

year Miro Bajramović, a former member of the

Merčepovci group, accused him and his subor-

dinates of torture, murder, and other criminal

activities. Nothing came of those charges un-

til December 2010, when Merčep was arrested

and incarcerated pending trial. Court proceed-

ings began in February 2012.

Merčepovci, who have uniformly backed Merčep, positing that the detention cen-tres never existed, or that the hdz man was not the commanding officer of the group (despite his name being lent to them). It might have been that the prosecution’s case was poised to fail in the face of this unified front, but for Josip Manolić.

Manolić was Prime Minister in the so called Government of National Unity, and one of the founders of hdz. During the pe-riod under scrutiny Manolić was also Head of suzup (the State Counter Intelligence

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28

– perhaps still is to a certain extent. Also, Manolić has always been regarded as a very pragmatic man, and he lived up to his rep-utation in this instance as well.

Those Serbians who were detained, and ultimately murdered, were not soldiers, nor spies, but rather civilians, many of whom were loyal to the newly independ-ent Croatia. At least one of them, Mihajlo Zec, as we have hinted earlier, had met a most horrific demise.

Mihajlo Zec was a well to do Zagreb Serb, the proprietor of a butcher shop and café in the Dolac market, in the city centre. In December of 1991 his home was raided by five members of Merčep’s unit, in an attempted robbery. Mihajlo was shot dead as he attempted to escape the intruders, by one Siniša Rimac, who later served as a bodyguard to the Defense Min-ister Gojko Šušak. Mihajlo’s wife, Jelena, and their twelve year old daughter, Ale-ksandra, were both taken to Sljeme and

executed by one Munib Suljić, a career criminal. The other two children, Dušan and Gordana, managed to hide and so sur-vived the massacre.

Several days after the incident the group were arrested and charged with their crimes, to which they pled guilty. They were released from prison, howev-er, on a technicality: they had offered their confessions without legal coun-sel being present, and as such the doc-uments were no longer admissible in a court of law. With no other witnesses to the crimes the proceedings were termi-nated. Both Dušan and Gordana moved to Banja Luka, and were raised by their pa-ternal grandmother. In 2004, following a law suit, they were awarded 1.5 million Kuna (200,000 Euros) as a reparation by the Croatian Government, a paltry sum indeed. The irony to be found in this un-forgivable crime is that Mihajlo Zec was one of the financiers of the original hdz, and stayed loyal to the new Croatian re-gime following their split from Yugosla-via. In the end he was targeted, and mur-dered, simply because he was a well to do ethnic Serb.

As for Merčep, the trial will go on and the judges will rule as they rule. The most important – or worst – thing, is that it took until 2010, almost two decades, before any action was taken, when the facts were, os-tensibly, known by the hierarchy and in-deed could be described an open secret. The current judiciary has an opportunity to atone for the sins of the State, and final-ly put an end to a matter which has, and rightly so, brought immeasurable shame upon Croatia.

For Tomislav Merčep, whether guilty of murder or not, was undoubtedly a war-monger, the very epitome of all those things most of us would rather forget.

Siniša Rimac

Josip Manolić

Ivan Vekić

september 27th

29

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event horizon

On September 10th, 2012, the In-ternational Steering Group for Kosovo (isg) declared the end

of the so-called supervised independ-ence of Kosovo. Now, at least in the eyes of isg, Kosovo must fend for itself, with the Priština authorities now relying on their own capabilities and competences to tackle future difficulties, and not only those pertaining to its erstwhile unilateral declaration of independence and the per-ennial ‘problems’ to be found in those few municipalities where the Serbs are still in the majority.

coming of age

Kosovo has been the responsibility of the International Steering Group, administra-tively and executively, since 2008, when the region declared its independence. The isg was established according to the Ahtisaari Plan, and was tasked with over-seeing the democratic development of Ko-sovo, along with the promotion of ‘good governance, a multi-ethnic society, and the rule of law’, until such time as the nas-cent state was ready to tackle it alone.

Pieter Faith was Civilian Representative for Kosovo (icr) and it was he who acted as the final authority on the interpreta-tion of the Plan; it was also he who pos-sessed the power to annul non-compliant

Kosovo has finally come of age. Or has it? In any case, no longer will its administration be guided by the International

community, and the question remains as to whether the fledgling country has the strength to withstand recent accusations of organ

trafficking, especially as coming from Belgrade…

Kosovo, the International Steering Group,

and Organ Trafficking

by Miša Milošević

legislation, as well as the ability to dismiss any public official whose agenda was in-compatible with the broader picture. Al-though his mandate, identical as it is to that of the Office of the High Represent-ative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, does not end until later this year, it can be expected that his involvement in sovereign affairs will be minimal, as he steps back to allow others to get to grips with issues at hand. Priština has shed the training wheels and, although support will still be there as needed, Kosovo is slowly but surely be-ing forced to lead a life on its own.

In legal and practical terms, this new chapter is an important step forward, both formally and ceremonially, but at the same time it is unlikely to change much in the way of daily life for the Kosovan peo-ple. Although Kosovo’s Constitution is already in full effect, which means that Priština will doubtless feel and act more empowered than previously, they will al-so, however, find themselves with more

responsibility for solving internal prob-lems and furthering their cause on the international stage. The Prime Minister, Hashim Thaçi, stated that his Govern-ment’s priorities have not changed – it is, in his view, essential that they fully in-tegrate Northern Kosovo (which includes Kosovska Mitrovica, the city split in two along ethnic lines), abolish the remain-ing Serbian institutions in that same ar-ea, liberalise visa regulations, and get Ko-sovo onto the so called Schengen white list, that final goal being part of Kosovo’s ultimate goal of furthering relations with the European Union.

Oddly, Thaçi did not mention any eco-nomic goals, not even the country’s dire need to improve its infrastructure. Al-though Kosovo is enjoying one of the highest economic growth rates in all of Europe (4% according to the imf), this piece of information could not be more misleading. mainly due to the number of Kosovar citizens working abroad and

Germany’s support for Serbia entering the eu is contingent upon Kosovo being recognised.

september 27th

31

be presented to Parliament. The question everyone is asking is whether there still exists a strategy whereby Serbia and Ko-sovo can be reconciled; after everything that has happened, any scenario but Kos-ovo’s full independence is highly unlikely.

The latest news, however, which has dominated the recent Serbian media, concerns the findings on human organ trafficking, which was supposedly taking place between Northern Albania and the contentious Kosovo. Dick Marty, of the Council of Europe, reported the alleged crimes, saying that civilians detained by the Kosovo Liberation Army (kla) had been shot dead in Northern Albania so that their organs could be harvested and sold on the black market. A location, the ill-famed ‘yellow house’, which lies with-in an Albanian village, was also identified as the place where such activities took place. The Serbian War Crimes Prosecu-tor has now presented the shocking tes-timony of a protected witness, apparent-ly Albanian, who claims to have helped medical staff perform some of these ma-cabre operations. This new testimony also recalls the report which accused Hashim Thaçi, the pm himself, of being the head of a ‘mafia like’ network which dealt in weapons, drugs, and (relevant in the cir-cumstances) human organ trafficking. In spite of these unspeakable atrocities, this case is unlikely to undermine Kosovo’s le-gitimacy – although it may end the career of more than one Kosovar public figure.

The creation of the Kosovo State, strangest as it may sound, has been prob-ably one of the smoothest political oper-ations in the region to date; Kosovo is recognised by 91 countries (with just 5 abstentions from amongst the European Union members), and it continues to join more and more international organisa-tions with each passing day, including the World Bank, the imf, and cefta. Its par-ticipation in regional and economic sum-mits also confers a de facto independence upon the four year old nation. Belgrade, by comparison, has been almost entirely passive during the process, choosing in-stead to react to Priština rather than take a pro-active approach.

All of this means that, as time goes by, Serbia’s manoeuvring space is shrinking, not that it was particularly large to begin with. Serbia and Kosovo are on the same path, but down that road lies Kosovo’s house, and it’s a dead end.

sending money home. Kosovo has an es-timated unemployment rate of 45-50%, and the average income is only 300 Euros per month, per household. If it weren’t for the remittances, the economy would be virtually non-existent. According to the Kosovo Remittance Survey 2011, con-ducted by undp, as many as 25% of the households are heavily dependent on this source of income, which accounts for up to 16% of Kosovo’s gdp. And these are only the official figures, or the results arrived at by using a method which is far from per-fect when it comes to tracking down cash which enters the country.

There is, of course, also the issue of the prevalence of smuggling and the grey economy, of which more later.

running out of alternatives

While Kosovo is starting out on its new journey, it falls on the International com-munity to help pave the way to full recog-nition. As such they are increasing pressure on Belgrade finally to accept the situation. Ruprech Polenz, representative of the Ger-man Bundestag, left no doubts when say-ing during European talks that “Serbia will have to recognise Kosovo before joining the European Union”. And while recent com-ments from the eu President, Herman Van

Rompuy, suggest that any such ultimatum has not been issued, it is most certainly the case that Germany’s support to Serbia en-tering the European Union is contingent upon Kosovo being recognised. It is worth noting as well that German support for ac-cession talks with Serbia has been rath-er subdued following the recent elections, where Tadić’s Democrats lost power.

While all of this is happening, Belgrade is more or less standing still. Serbian Pres-ident Nikolić announced a new plan for future negotiations, but that has yet to

Strangely enough, the creation of

the Kosovo State has been one of the smoothest political

operations in the region to date.

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politics

Mark the date in your calendars; Montenegro will see a full Gen-eral Election on October 14th,

following the decree of President Filip Vujanović. At the same time the cities of Nikšić, Budva, and Kotor will see Local Elections. All in all, this will be the ninth election to be held in Montenegro since its full dissociation with Serbia. This elec-tion, however, is being seen by the Op-position as their biggest and best chance to effect change since the break-up of the former Socialist Federal Republic, and for a good reason.

According to ‘Vijesti’, the Podgori-ca daily, this is the first time since 2002 – when the current incumbents first came to power – that certain developments could shake the seemingly absolute supremacy enjoyed by the Government. “Beside the fact that the Opposition is getting seri-ous, having presented a new political op-tion, and could seize a considerable share of the vote, the main concern for the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (dps) should be that those who are unhappy with the situation in Montenegro now know who they have to vote for”, said the publica-tion. With the Opposition now consolidat-ed, with two parties looking to get Lukić out of office, a high turnout would like-ly mean the end of the current establish-ment’s rule. While much of Europe has seen a change in Government due to the

Montenegro is about to find out just how popular, or unpopular, the current Government is, as early elections have been called for

October 14th. Which direction will Lukić’s party take? Will they stay where they are, or have they identified a destination above all?

Montenegrin Parliamentary Elections:

Change for Change’s Sake?

by Dylan Alexander

global crises, so often written about, Mon-tenegro has thus far resisted any change. The Opposition hopes that this is no long-er the case.

a litmus test for the founding fathers

The current coalition, consisting of Milo Đukanović’s Democratic Party of Social-ists (dps), and Ranko Krivokapić’s Social Democratic Party (sdp) has been in undis-puted power for over a decade. This politi-cal marriage, which will continue on into this coming election, has worked on many fundamental issues for Montenegro: inde-pendence, the introduction of the Euro as

a national currency, and their efforts to gain European Union candidate status. Đukanović, who is regarded by many as being Montenegro’s founding father, will seek to trade on this reputation, especial-ly if it seems as if more pragmatic political campaigning is failing his party.

As for Đukanović’s return to active pol-itics – or his running for an executive of-fice – this remains one of the biggest stories in the forthcoming Montenegrin election. Đukanović recently said that he harboured no ambitions towards the offices of Presi-dent or Prime Minister, but did cast doubt upon his own words when he stated that

“this is politics, and you never know what will happen until the very end.”

That said, the reasoning behind the early elections, as explained by the Government, is that they feel a full, four year mandate is required in order to successfully nego-tiate with the European Union, or other-wise they might run the risk of having talks interrupted half-way through the process. The official talks began on June 29th of this year.

The Opposition, while in a strong po-sition electorally, are not happy with the snap election. According to Srđan Milić, leader of the Socialist People’s Party (snp), there was no consensus on when an elec-tion would be called, and that President Vujanović had essentially shortened the mandate of the entire parliament, against

While much of Europe

has seen a change in Government, Montenegro has thus far resisted.

september 27th

33

The President of pc, Rade Bojović, ex-plained: “These elections have come too early for us, since we have only been in ex-istence for three months. We do not want to take any risk with elections now, but would instead prefer to develop a long-term alternative to the current political regime”.

It is Bojović’s opinion that the electorate could best punish the current Government by abstaining, en masse, from the upcom-ing election, thus de-legitimising any re-sult. The opposite, being a high turnout, might actually prove the best solution to ousting the incumbents from their perch; let us see why.

expanding the opposition

The maturation of a political era, and its potential termination, can often be ad-judged by the alternatives on offer. Since the advent of a more democratic system in Montenegro, the political scene has been dichotomous in nature – Nationalists and Unionists, ‘genuine’ Montenegrins and Serbian Montenegrins. In the short histo-ry of this nation, the political parties who represent it have done little but operate to their specific agenda, furthering the seg-regation of the two camps, perhaps to a point where they might never share com-mon ground again.

This contrast is, as one might have sur-mised, directly connected to the ethnic set-up of the country; according to the 2011 census, 45% of the population iden-tify as Montenegrin, while 30% consider themselves Serb. This data has varied wild-ly from census to census, with people in-clined to feel ‘more’ Montenegrin or Serb as a result of national and political events. Could it be that the Montenegrin people have reached a saturation point? Tired of seeing politics being used almost exclusive-ly as a weapon for furthering various dif-ferent nationalistic agendas, are the people finally ready to place welfare and prosper-ity coming to the fore, leaving ideological, mostly identity-based bickering behind? The emerging options from the Opposi-tion might suggest that the answer is ‘yes’.

the choices

New Serbian Democracy (nsd) and Move-ment for Change (pzp) are two parties which have joined forces in a new alli-ance called the Democratic Front (df),

the will of those politicians who are not in Government. Moreover, the position of snp is that Montenegro is not able to conduct fair and democratic elections as things stand: a lack of independent media, in-complete electoral registers, and an abuse of public resources during campaigns, by the ruling coalition, are just some of the problems to overcome if full transparency is to be achieved.

Furthermore Milić, though dismayed with the circumstances, said his party “will not boycott the elections, if other Opposi-tion parties decide not to do the same”. For the time being, only one party has chosen to abstain from the upcoming campaign, Righteous Montenegro (pc), albeit for dif-ferent reasons than might be expected.

President Vujanović not resigning

Several opposition parties, as well as Srđan

Milić of the Democratic Front, had asked Pres-

ident Vujanović to step down from his office

so that, like Serbia before them, Montenegro

could hold one consolidated election. The re-

ply from the President was that his surrendering

his mandate, which expires in May 2013, would

be of immense disrespect to the electorate who

had voted him into Office. The paradox is more

than discernible, especially given the Govern-

ment’s decision to cut short their own mandate

without any qualms.

The maturation of a political era, and its potential termination, can often be adjudged

by the alternatives on offer.

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under the leadership of Miodrag Lekić, a former Minister in several Montenegrin Governments, long-time Ambassador to Rome, and also a ubiquitous public fig-ure. Another Opposition contender, and possibly the strongest, is Positive Mon-tenegro, a centre-left sovereignist party which bears an intentional nod to Positive Slovenia. A recognisably reformist party, it has thus far proven quite popular with the public, nominally at the expense of dps-sdp ratings, presenting, as it does, an alternative for current supporters of the coalition who no longer believe dps-sdp capable of jumpstarting the econo-my, reducing social inequality, and re-deeming the reputations of those State bodies which have alleged ties to crimi-nal spheres. Be that as it may, experts on the ground seem to be of the opinion that the Opposition’s chances of success are no more than moderate.

Boris Raonić, Director of the Civic Al-liance of Montenegro, said that the “cur-rent political situation in Montenegro might differ from that of earlier years, but not drastically; I would stress that the main political division is not as severe as before, but now the sovereignists have one clear alternative available to them – of course we are talking about Positive Montene-gro, which has been very critical about the current Government. This may prove appealing to voters who themselves have very strong feelings about Montenegro as their homeland, and that may in turn en-danger the position of the ruling coalition.”

And herein lies the main problem. The po-litical spectrum is cluttered in every sense, which means that it will be difficult, for any option, to win on merit or programme alone. In other words, one should not ex-pect wonders to happen, even in the event of the current government being ousted. It just may be that ‘change for change’s sake’ is the absolute best Montenegro can do un-der the circumstances.

Structure of the Montenegrian Parliament

OppositionMovement for Changes (PZP)

Serbian People's Party (SNS)

Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNP CG)

People's Party (NS)

Bosniak Party (BS)

Democratic Party of Unity (DSJ)

People's Socialist Party (NSS)

Serbian Radical Party - Vojislav Šešelj (SRS-VS)

Democratic Serbian Party (DSS)

Liberal Party (LPCG)

Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA)

Albanian Alternative (AA)

Party of Democratic Prosperity

MajorityDemocratic Party of Socialists (DPS)

Social Democratic Party of Montenegro (SDP)

Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI)

Number of MPs in Montenegrin parliament is not fixed but depends

on the number of voters: each MP represents 6.000 votes.

4011

9

8

2

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

4133

7

1

We must add, however, the opinion of Srđan Vukadinović, a sociologist. He be-lieves that Montenegrin voters have but a limited choice, politically speaking, even with the emergence of Positive Montene-gro. “The political spectrum is just too wide for the considerably small body of voters, and that leaves very limited space for any new ideologies, options, or politi-cal subjects,” said Vukadinović.

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human interest

When it has come to divvying up the various facets of power, amongst those parties which have formed

the Serbian Government over the past dec-ade, it certainly appears as if the offices of culture featured very low on anyone’s wish list. Traditionally, and this is very much the case elsewhere too, chief inter-est lies with defence, policing, infrastruc-ture, and finance. The reasoning for this need not be delved into too deeply, and the Ministry of Culture, therefore, would not have been viewed as having strategic importance, but rather somewhere to de-posit loyal party elders, allowing them one final hurrah on the political stage.

Prolonged neglect of such cultural in-stitutions brought about expected conse-quences: museums and libraries closed, and the wider cultural experience atro-phied. Yet there was nevertheless a sur-prise in store as one of the most radical, nationalistic, and regressive messages (ap-pended as it was to one of the new Govern-ment’s many statements), came from the Ministry of Culture, or, as it were, from one of its officials.

the new crusade

As we have mentioned in the previous is-sue, the Serbian Government is facing somewhat of a deficit when it comes to experts and experience in general. It was

Remember the Chinese Cultural Revolution? Not the best of memories? It may be that Serbia will soon experience something of a similar bent, albeit dressed in the costume of Nationalism. Already a manifesto has been written,

and circulated, by no less than the new Deputy Minister of Culture… and yes, of course there is a black list involved.

A Serbian Permanent Cultural Revolution

by Miša Milošević

for these reasons that names from the past were recalled to active duty. Given the feu-dal nature of Governmental institutions and publicly owned companies, it was left to each separate body to call upon their own ‘names’, and so it came to be that Dragan Kolarević, novelist and long-time editor at Serbian State Television, was ap-pointed as Assistant to the Minister of Cul-ture, in charge of media and information. Kolarević had also served as the editor of

the News and Culture Programme, partly during the era of Milošević. In the weeks prior to his appointment Kolarević pub-lished an open letter – ‘State of the Na-tion’s Culture’, its casus belli being the theatrical production ‘Zoran Đinđić’, by Croatian avant-garde director Oliver Frljić, which was recently on the playbill in Belgrade.

In this particular work the entirety of the Serbian people are held guilty for the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minis-ter, and the piece, truth be told, features a number of rather distasteful scenes, such as the one involving vomiting upon the Serbian flag. It is worth noting that the play itself was very well received, but it was the political message inherent in the play which was Kolarević’s sole focus.

Kolarević claims that the cultural identity of the Serbian people, over the past century, has been occupied by var-ious enemies – first by the identity of the newly established Yugoslavia, then by the post World War II Communist regime, and finally by the democratic Government which succeeded Milošević. For him the entire cultural policy of the 20th centu-ry had been anti-Serbian and, if you could believe it, a deliberate war waged by the Croatians, Slovenians, and ethnic Albani-ans – all financed by Serbia’s own money, mind – while ‘true Serbian’ artists were pushed to the margins.

There are those who are of the opinion

that the whole thing may have been orchestrated, if

not by the present Government itself,

then at least by those close to it.

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Kolarević not only listed the names of past promoters of anti-Serbian cultural poli-cies but also offered a list of some 30 indi-viduals – artists, singers, actors, writers, and directors – who are alleged exponents and executors of this specific war. The list doubles as a list of those who have pub-licly supported Boris Tadić and Čedomir Jovanović, and almost reads as a ‘who’s who’ of the local showbiz and culture scene. The new Assistant concluded with his clarion call: “There is only one reme-dy against such occupation – an upheaval, meaning a cultural upheaval; the first Ser-bian cultural upheaval!”

sticks & stones

Do we really have an uprising unfolding? Is this the list of supposed heretics who must be eliminated, if only figuratively speak-ing, in this crusade?

As always, there were those who would agree, and those who would dis-agree. Reaction to this missive was im-mediate, on all levels. The Government, however, did not choose to act – the co-alition parties felt it was not in their re-mit to pass comment, as Kolarević had published his views prior to his appoint-ment, and before the Government had been formed. Bratislav Petković, Minis-ter of Culture, said quite plainly: “I will not fire Kolarević, and he will stay in the Ministry. Honestly, I have not read the article in question and I am not aware of its contents.” The Prime Minister, Ivica Dačić, also ruled out any action.

There is of course the possibility that Kolarević’s version of ‘J’accuse’ may have been more than mere personal meander-ings, and there are those who are of the opinion that the whole thing may have been orchestrated, if not by the present Government itself, then at least by those close to it – a well timed and coordinat-ed action intended to announce the future ideological criteria in the Government’s course of managing culture and arts with-in the country.

Firstly, the language is clearly too in-flammable for a Minister to have their name directly attached – so it would be more opportune to take advantage of an unelected official instead. In the second in-stance, in his letter Kolarević fails to pay heed to the museums and libraries which have, for many years now, been closed due to the lack of adequate funding.

Ratko Božović, a Professor of Sociolo-gy, says that “this is a moral problem – it is an anachronism, which reminds us that we are currently regressing, instead of progressing. What if it was precisely Kolarević’s opinions that got him the job?” Branislav Lečić, a famed Serbian actor and one of Kolarević’s ‘heretics’, doesn’t feel threatened by events: “We don’t need such exclusivity today – it belongs to the handicapped, and outsiders.” For the ac-tor, perhaps, it’s still a case of ‘sticks and stones…’

culture as politics

All of this, however, was just the over-ture to the Minister’s own, and there-fore official, cultural declarations. Brati-slav Petković of the Progressives (sns) is a dramatist by education, but had spent most of his non-political career in his fam-ily-owned pastry shop, in Belgrade. That particular shop has also made the news, as the business owes several years in back taxes to the State. What brought him to wider attention, rather than some mixture of ice cream and breads, was his found-ing of Serbia’s first private car museum, a museum which boasts a large collection of

rare classic automobiles, hosted in a refur-bished World War II military garage; a col-lection which takes priority, at least in the then future-Minister’s eyes, over any other obligations. “I didn’t feel like selling some of my cars in order to pay the taxes owed,” the Minister recently quipped.

Now, with the sns flag flying over-head, Petković is still drawn to controversy

Minister of Culture Bratislav Petković in his natural environment.

Dragan Kolarević

september 27th

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demise of Franco, Serbia also saw the ar-rival of many foreign influences. In this way traditional expression was marginal-ised, a 180° turn from the previous poli-cy, though this was possibly not the in-tended result.

All of this caused the Serbian cultur-al identity to change, but for some it ap-peared as if that identity was dead, or dy-ing. Serbia, as it is still doing, had needed to perform a complete makeover, to present a more hospitable face to those who looked on, yet does that necessarily mean that Serbia’s traditional culture should have been overlooked at the expense of a more modern, international version? Certainly, the 2000s were more marked by quantity than quality, suffering on occasion from bad taste and non-selectiveness.

That said, it is unlikely that this pro-gramme of modernisation was in any way a sinister ploy to undermine the very es-sence of Serbia. The system under Tadić may have been flawed, but it would be dangerous to allow the current Govern-ment to use culture as a political weapon, loaded with ideological ammunition. If events progress along the current path, the only result possible is a return to nineties, which is hardly something anyone wants. A middle ground would be the obvious so-lution, but it might be too early in the Gov-ernment’s reign to expect that.

In the meantime, we can only hope that this new cultural policy, as announced – or intimated – by the Ministry, does not be-come a reality. Cooler heads are called for in this particular battle.

Kolarević’s List of Shame

Zdravko Čolić - probably the most famous pop singer in ex-Yugoslavia in the last 30 years; Momčilo Bajagić - famous ex-Yugoslav and Serbian rock and pop

singer; Dejan Mijač - distinguished theatre director; Slobodan Šijan - famous movie director; Mira Banjac - theatre and movie actress; Gordan Kičić- theatre

and movie actor; Branislav Trifunović - theatre and movie director; Radoš Bajić - movie and TV actor and director; Vojislav Brajović - famous movie actor in ex-

Yugoslavia; Svetozar Cvetković - theatre and movie actor; Predrag Ejdus - theatre and movie actor; Branislav Lečić - theatre and movie actor; Branko Cvejić -

theatre and movie actor; Tihomir Stanić - theatre and movie actor; Lazar Ristovski - theatre and movie actor; Dara Đokić - theatre and movie actress; Goran

Šušljik - theatre and movie actor; Tamara Vučković - theatre and movie actress; Milica Mihajlović - theatre and movie actress; Slobodan Boda Ninković -

theatre and movie actor; Miroslav Momčilović - dramatist; Jagoš Marković - theatre director; Nataša Ninković - theatre and movie actress; Srdan Golubović

- movie director; Vjera Mujović - theatre and movie actress; Tanja Mandić Rigonat - theatre director; Milena Šešić - professor at the Faculty of the Arts in

Belgrade; Biljana Srbljanović - famous playwright and writer; Jovan Ćirilov - famous theatre director and historian; Lazar Stojanović - movie director; Srđan

Gojković Gile - frontman of the rock band "Elektricni orgazam"; Timothy John Byford - TV director naturalised in Serbia; Dušan Ercegovac - music and video

producer; Lena Bogdanović - theatre and movie actress; Đorđe Pavlov - Belgrade male model and restaurateur; Stevan Filipović - movie director; Olivera

Ježina - theatre and movie actress; Alek Conić - movie and ad director; Seka Sablić - famous movie and theatre actress; Bora Todorović - famous movie

and theatre actor; Puriša Đorđević - famous movie director; Svetislav Basara - acclaimed writer; Miljenko Dereta - dramatist and movie director; Dragan

Velikić - novelist; Maja Mičić - Youth Initiative for Human Rights; Jelena Milić - Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies in Belgrade; Dunja Ilić - pop singer.

– shortly after taking office he found him-self involved in an attempt to reopen the National Museum, which had been closed for almost a decade due to a lack of funding for reconstruction. His plan was to move the museum into the main Post Office building. The now vacant building would host a new museum, the Nikola Tesla Mu-seum, while the Town Hall would become the Museum of Serbian Dynasties. In addi-tion to this, the parliament building itself would also host varying exhibitions, thus turning the entire area “into our Serbian Versailles”, in the Minister's own words.

This Romanticist approach proved quite impossible and exposed the amateur na-ture of the Ministry, causing no small amount of dismay amongst the academia, the artistic world, and the officials and staff of the Post Office who had never been con-sulted on the plan.

Further statements, such as “culture should affirm traditional and national val-ues…art should be patriotic…people who have been pushed to the margins must re-store their positions”, have done little to calm the mood and, indeed, have evoked

old fears of dictated cultural, educational, and media patterns, reminiscent of the old regime. Or worse.

the true state of culture

Without any intention to act as interpreter for the claims of the two Ministry officials, we do have our own views on the Serbian cultural scene, and perhaps an idea as to why it reacted as it did. Even if we accept Petković and Kolarević’s positions as be-ing retrograde they are, nevertheless, not entirely unfounded – they do address what can be described, if briefly, as the over-in-ternationalisation of Serbia’s cultural out-put and the consequent suppression of lo-cal artists, authors, etc.

While the nineties, under Milošević, were marked by an overwhelming na-tional, ethnic, Orthodox, quasi-tradition-al programme of art and culture (coupled with the near absence of any imports of foreign content), the following decade saw a reversal of that policy. Similar in nature to the cultural liberalisation and eman-cipation which Spain enjoyed after the

All of this caused the Serbian cultural identity to change, but for some it appeared

as if that identity was dead, or dying.

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Macedonia’s Wines: High Volume & Decent Quality

Macedonia, as a region, accounted for almost two-thirds of Yugoslav wine production. It has been known for quality wines, even in times when quantity

came first. Although current production volumes are roughly half that of levels during its heyday, Macedonia still enjoys a huge market share in the

region. Reds dominating, the Macedonian product is also excellent value for money. Sadly, however, the country’s winemakers still struggle to

come up with a truly exclusive product.

good stuff

Macedonia’s largest and

best known wine producer is

the Tikveš winery, located in

the Vardar valley. They pro-

duce a wide array of alco-

holic beverages, from whites

and reds, to sparkling wines

and spirits. If one is inclined

to explore the full range of

Tikveš’s bottled product, it

is important to keep in mind

that their top Alexandria line

is grossly overpriced and will

leave you somewhat disap-

pointed, if only for the lack of

value. Their entry level wines

will provide you with plen-

ty of ‘bang for your buck’,

and these certainly atone

for any shortcomings of the

other ranges. We chose to look at one such wine,

T’ga za Jug, which is the best known of all Macedo-

nian wines. Over one million bottles are produced

annually, so it is also the most widely spread. It is

made from the vranec variety of grape, which is the

predominant variety grown within Macedonia (al-

though the grape itself is originally Montenegrin).

T’ga za Jug is a semi-dry red wine of intense colour,

with an aroma reminiscent of raspberries and rai-

sins. It is rich in fine tannin and possesses an over-

all sweet taste. It is best served with grilled red meat

and hard cheeses, at a temperature between 16°C

and 18°C. (4-5 Euros)

The Ezimit Winery, locat-

ed in Štip, is another large

Macedonian wine pro-

ducer, and can be count-

ed amongst the most

modern wineries in Eu-

rope. We picked anoth-

er red in this instance, but

rather than harp on about

merlot or cabernet sauvi-

gnon we plumped for an-

other vranec wine, if for

no other reason than to il-

lustrate how one variety of

grape can yield two rath-

er different types of wine.

Vranec Reserva is aged in

oak for two years prior to

being bottled, and then

left to age even further so

that the most recent bot-

tles on the market have

‘2006’ emblazoned upon their labels. It is safe to

say that this wine is a most definite ‘best buy’, as

similar wines from Chile or Spain are priced dou-

ble what our Macedonian pick will cost you. This is

a full-bodied, dry red wine with a pronounced bar-

rique quality (perhaps even too much so). Indeed,

rather than turning into an ‘oak monster’, as some

would put it, this wine is instead very rich in aro-

ma. It is best served at 18°C as a companion to any

cured meat, black olives, and blue cheese.

(5 Euros)

Our third wine comes

from the Bovin winery, in

Negotino. Bovin was on-

ly established recently,

in 1998, and was Mac-

edonia’s first private-

ly owned winery. Unlike

many similar operations

in the region, Bovin pro-

duces a large quantity of

wine without tarnish-

ing the overall quality.

This much could be as-

certained by looking at

the numerous interna-

tional awards they have

won over their short

life, and it is this which

makes them very much

a champion of Mace-

donian wine. We didn’t

want to make this piece

entirely about red wine, and so we chose a Char-

donnay, which has so far won twice as many

medals as all of Macedonia’s Olympians com-

bined. This is a quality dry white wine, of pale yel-

low hue, tropical fruit nuances and harmonious

aromas of vanilla and toast making for a light and

easily drinkable wine. Best served chilled at 8°C

to 10°C, with mild cheese, fish or white meat, as

you would with any other Chardonnay.

(7-8 Euros)

Tikveš » T'ga Za Jug

Ezimit » Vranec Reserva

Bovin »Chardonnay

september 27th

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to-do list

Joy Of Europe 2012Children's Cultural Centre, Belgrade /

BIO 23Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana

/

MESS 2012various venues, Sarajevo

/

Nature & Health FairLjubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre/

Jovan KolundžijaCankarjev dom, Ljubljana (19:30h)/

Horticulture FestivalSkenderija Centre, Sarajevo /

Bemusvarious venues, Belgrade/

Marija Braut: My ZagrebCankarjev Dom, Ljubljana/

Auto Show 2012Fair Grounds, Novi Sad/

Restaurant WeekCroatia/

AmbientaZagreb Fair Grounds /

The Duke Ellington OrchestraKD Vatroslav Lisinski, Zagreb (20h)/

BalkanimaDK Studentski Grad, Belgrade/

25 FPSStudentski Centar, Zagreb/

Green Design FestivalHoliday Inn Hotel, Sarajevo /

43rd European Children's Culture Festival

23rd Ljubljana Bienniale of Design

52nd International Theatre Festival

43rd Nutrition, Wellness, Health, and Ecology fair

Classical music concert by an acclaimed Serbian violinist

International horticulture festival and fair

44th International Classical Music Festival

Exhibition of works by the acclaimed Croatian photographer

12th Novi Sad Motor Show

Three course meals for 100 Kuna at select Croatian restaurants

39th International Furniture, Home Decoration and Interior Design Fair

Jazz, or as the Duke would put it, American music concert

9th European Animated Film Festival

8th International Experimental Film Festival

International Festival of Green Industry and Design

September 25th - 30th

September 27th - 30th

October 5th - 14th

October 10th - 14th

October 4th

October 2nd - 6th

October 1st - October 5th

September 27th - October 10th

September 29th - October 7th October 11th - 14thOctober 7th

October 10th - 12th October 12th - 14th

October 11th November 11th

October 10th - 14th

The Duke Ellington Orchestra Jovan Kolundžija Marija Braut

september 27th

43

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