Outside the EU, Serbia would have less influence in Europe?

The State Secretary with the Ministry for Kosovo, Oliver Ivanovic, gave an interview to beta news agency (found via B92) claiming that Serbia must join the EU and then “Europe will treat Serbia with more respect, and our position will be much better,” to re-open of the Kosovo status talk.
In other words, we’re going to treat EU with respect to enter EU in order to be respected in order to have a much better position in order to re-open Kosovo talk. That’s ridiculous. We need to respect ourselves and our own ability to guide our future, and that’s when we’ll get respect, not when we prostrate ourselves before EU diplomats.

Thankfully, back in 2008, Oliver Ivanovic also gave an interview for the “Pravda” daily (found via Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija) so we can dig into the details a bit. Ivanovic says: “Serbia must proceed towards Brussels. Once we are economically strong, politically influential, and internationally respected, we can reopen the issue of territorial integrity.” This makes two faulty assumptions that Ivanovic either knows and ignores or is ignorant about (neither of these are good options). First, it assumes that Serbia must join the EU to be a modern European economy with strong economic foundations. That, of course, is ridiculous. There is empirical evidence that countries which participate in the European market without subjecting themselves to the associated regulations of membership are wealthier than full EU members. Second, it assumes that outside the EU, Serbia would have less political influence in Europe and would be less respected in the world. At the risk of stating the obvious, a country is generally more influential if it has a foreign policy in the first place. Of course, this is undeniably true that Serbia would have less political influence in Europe. We would have little say over interest rates in Slovenia, agricultural policy in Romania or youth training in Bulgaria. Conversely, of course, we would be free to determine our own policies in areas which are currently subject to the EU.

Serbian citizens support Serbia’s EU integration?

If you’ve been paying attention to the Serbian news about Serbia’s integration in the EU, you may have heard the story that made the rounds about an opinion poll stating that 61 % of Serbian citizens support Serbia’s EU integration. You can download the full report as a PDF, but it’s in Serbian. Some news stories and blogs cover the high points. It was a hit among the Euro–integrationists, and it got picked up by a variety of mainstream sources, including B92. The press used the survey without noting the bias in the numbers. According to results of this survey, 61% of Serbian citizens would support our country’s membership in the EU, 13% would vote against it, while 16% would not vote at all should they be in position to cast their vote on this issue at a referendum. Well, the sum of the percentages add up to less than 100 percent. 61%+16%+13%=90%. What’s the other 10 percent?

Is The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Having Political Information In English Really A Big Deal?

There hasn’t been plenty of stories over the years about politicians in Serbia embracing the internet. While politicians in Serbia have traditionally focused on political website with political stuff in Serbian language, it appears that the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) of Koštunica is recognizing the indirect benefits of having some political information in English. Basically, the DSS is realizing what plenty of other political parties in the world have discovered in the past: it’s important to have a political website in English to be able to get the message out to a much wider audience. Serbian politicians need to get past the idea that every single visitor needs to be Serbian. Instead, recognize the indirect benefits of having more users.

The DSS stuff in English helps promote the party — even if the vast majority of the readers would never vote for the party. However, they will help make the DSS incredibly popular, driving additional political recognition and helping the DSS raise fund and rally international donors. So even though only a tiny percentage of their English readers would vote for the party, there’s tremendous benefit in getting as many others aware of them and visiting the website as possible.
The sad part of this story is that only the DSS is recognizing the indirect benefits of having some political information in English. All other political parties in Serbia, DS, SRS, SPS, SNS, LDP and G17 (to name a few) have their website in Serbian.

Serbia Suing Ukraine For Gas Blockade, And The Dutch For Serbia’s European Integration Blockage?

As you probably know, Serbia is affected by the gas crisis. Serbian housewife wants to have gas in her kitchen and does not care who is to blame, Moscow or Kiev. As for European politicians, they, too, put the blame on both of Ukraine and Russia. But it appears that Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, has also suggested that European companies from the energy sector should consider lawsuit against Ukraine and Russia for gas blockade. Already, some European companies have followed the president of the European Commission recommendation, such as Emfes, Hungary’s largest natural gas distributor, which filed a lawsuit against Ukraine’s Naftogaz at the European Court in Luxembourg. The head of Serbian supplier Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, stated that the legal analysis of the potential lawsuit against Ukraine regarding blockade of the Russian gas to Serbia is underway. All in all, it seems that all companies from the energy sector affected by gas blockage will follow the European Commission recommendation. It is difficult to see what was wrong with any of this.

It makes you wonder why Jose Manuel Barroso is not making a recommendation to Serbia’s President Boris Tadic to consider lawsuit against the Dutch state for Serbia’s European integration blockage. Maybe, it’s time for Serbia to rely on international law, and for Serbian lawyers to analyse what Serbia can do to compensate the huge damage Dutch government has made by delaying Serbia’s European integration. We’re still waiting for a clear explanation of how this lawsuit will actually negatively impact Serbia’s image in the world, but some people still insist it will. For those who believe so, let’s ask a simple question: how is this any worse than the enthousiasm of the citizens of Serbia to move towards the European Union disappearing from Serbia? Because if Serbian government and President Boris Tadic don’t do something soon that may be what we’re looking at.

More And More Serbian Expatriates Choosing To Return To Serbia

Thanks to all the fretting and worrying about the financial trouble, it’s become something of a curiosity that more Serbian expatriates than ever seem to be going back to Serbia. However, it all makes sense once you realize the simple fact: while Europe and the USA may be in trouble, Serbia is actually doing quite well (Crisis? What Crisis?). Just a few weeks ago, there’s been a bit of a discussion going on around a recent survey conducted by the Serbian internet job search Infostud and the Serbian Diaspora Ministry saying that two-thirds of people of Serb origin living abroad plan to return to Serbia. This seemed like a good thing as many of these people planning to return to Serbia are highly educated and possess skills that Serbia desperately needs. However, a poll doesn’t provide any evidence that this is really happening, and of course, it’s one thing to say you would return to Serbia and another thing altogether to do it. Well, it appears that a 25 year old Computer Genius from the Serbian expatriate community of Toronto would soon return to Belgrade with valuable experience. The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that there are around 50,000 Serbs in Toronto, 250,000 Serbs in Canada, and 3.5 million Serbs abroad, so we should read more and more stories of Serbian expatriates choosing to return to Serbia. Who’s next?

Did The Dutch Government Actually Do Something Right In Its Efforts To Delay Serbia’s European Integration?

Over the past few years, we’ve seen various European governments delay Serbia’s European integration. The latest example is the Dutch government still against the ratification of the stabilisation and association agreement (SAA) with Serbia because the Serbian authorities have not yet arrested Ratko Mladic. It seems like once war criminals get involved, Dutch government officials let their brains go away. It’s almost surprising to find out that there’s a high ranking politician who recognizes this. Apparently an old friend of Vaclav Havel, the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg made exactly that point, noting that Duch politicians need to let go, and put Serbia clearly on the road to EU membership, rather than trying to get proof of Serbia’s full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Why? Well, Karel Schwarzenberg notes that “Just think how many murderers in my country and in your country (Germany) went unpunished after World War Two. Therefore, we are not competent to say that Serbia must not be integrated over one sole murderer.” Great, but what about Dutch war crimes?

Back in December, the Czech Foreign Minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, gave also an interview to Tony Barber over at The Financial Times Brussels blog, explaining that he understands the Dutch point of view, but thinks they are wrong: “I look back at Europe after the second world war from the perspective of each future EU country. If each war criminal had had to be dealt with first [before launching the EU], I’m not sure the process would have started before the 1980s.” and Tony Barber went on to say that “Karel Schwarzenberg was too polite to mention which countries had failed to prosecute war criminals until four decades after the war’s end.” It’s no secret that not one Dutch war criminals has been charged by the International War Crimes Tribunal for executing a group of around 431 men and boys in the West Java village of Rawagede on December 9, 1947. The Netherlands have constantly refused to come to terms with their colonial past and war criminals, but were always quick to ask Serbia to bring Mladic to the International Court. Finally, and most importantly, the unfortunate part of this story is that delaying Serbia’s European integration actually harm Serbian people.

Dear Ambassador Wordsworth: Banning SRS Probably Won’t Help Much

I really try to avoid reading the British Ambassador to Serbia Stephen Wordsworth blog (and comments) because it just raises my blood pressure with a near constant stream of highly misleading arguments or just purely ridiculous claims. However, a bunch of folks have sent in the story that Ambassador Wordsworth is up to his usual tricks of taking some bit of news, twisting the context around completely, leaving out fairly important details and coming up with a conclusion that doesn’t even add up from his own twisted reasoning. I recently wrote about how Ambassador Wordsworth is interfering in Serbian political affairs. But, of course, it appears he can’t stop there. His latest move is to suggest that SRS and Serbian nationalism parties should be banned. Ambassador Wordsworth claims that “most people now realise that the Radicals’ brand of negative nationalism has no place any more in a modern European democracy, such as Serbia. And most of those who once supported them seem to have moved away, towards more modern pro-European options.”

First, it assumes that Serbian nationalism has no place any more in a modern European democracy. That, of course, is ridiculous. Serbian nationalist parties fit into the legitimate order of Serbian political pluralism, and are a manifestation of democracy. In fact, nationalism is a phenomenon of modern democracy, and Serbian nationalism is an inherent and, in a sense, unavoidable feature of Serbian democracy. Second, it assumes that most of those who once supported the SRS party have moved away, towards more modern pro-European options. In fact, it’s quite difficult to establish, with any degree of certainty, how many voters have moved away from SRS to support Tomislav Nikolic’s (ex SRS) recently-formed Serb Progressive Party (SNS) as Serbia has had only some repeated local elections. Ambassador Wordsworth seems to conflate polls and election results. As you probably know, a recent poll conducted by the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) is saying that the Serb Radical Party (SRS) is supported by 6.9 percent of the electorate and Tomislav Nikolic’s (ex SRS) recently-formed Serb Progressive Party (SNS) would now gain 23.8 percent of voters in a parliamentary election. This has been one of our problems with politicians and Ambassadors relying on such Serbian polls. It’s notoriously unreliable. Back in April 2008, according to a similar CeSID opinion poll, the Serb Radical Party (SRS) was supposedly supported by the most of voter for the May 11 parliamentary election. As you know, CeSID was wrong on almost everything.

Is Ambassador Wordsworth Interfering In Serbian Internal Political Affairs?

These days, it’s become quite common to see many Ambassadors to Serbia pretty much involved in Serbian political affairs. There have been plenty of protests against such ‘interfering’, coming from politicians and bloggers but it hasn’t done much to stop them from spreading. British Ambassador to Serbia Stephen Wordsworth had an interesting post declaring that “People sometimes ask if that’s appropriate – isn’t it ‘interfering in internal political affairs’, for an Ambassador to show ‘support’ for one political party?” There is a lot to respond to here, and we’ll let folks in the comments respond to the questions over “‘interfering in internal political affairs” since Ambassador Wordsworth is notorious for being a prominent adviser to Serbian politicians. However, I’m not sure why it matters that Ambassador Wordsworth only go to meetings of political parties (leaders) if he is invited. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s being overly aggressive and abusing the purpose of Ambassador’s role. He tries to paint its activities as being perfectly normal, but that’s simply not true. We see a lot of diplomatic activity around here, and Ambassador Wordsworth is definitely a lot more combative on Serbian internal political affairs than most Ambassadors.

Things I love about Belgrade: Belgrade’s girls?

Many people wrote about Belgrade, the beautiful girl from Belgrade, the parties and clubs, pirate movies, etc. Well, here’s a fun one. Over the weekend, Dimitar Vuksanov had an interesting post about Belgrade: Things I love about Belgrade – Things I don’t like about Belgrade. Vuksanov apparently complained about how awful it is that “girls with so much make up” are “dressed like they’re going to an Oscar ceremony at 7 a.m. in the morning”. Only in the world of someone who doesn’t understand Serbian girls would that person lament the fact that the girls are not ugly in the morning. Imagine a man walking in Knez Mihailova street in the morning and the first thing he sees is an ugly girl, with inflatable lips and eyeballs to shame a frog and you expect the man’s day at work to be pleasant? It appears Vuksanov doesn’t understand Belgrade’s girl at all. Serbian girls want to be beautiful all day long, and of course in the morning. Well, that said, if you would like to see by yourself some Serbian girls, you should visit Milan Zonic’s gallery.

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