New mechanism needed after Hague Tribunal closes

Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz at the Hague International Tribunal said on 17 February that the UN would develop a mechanism for enabling trials after the Tribunal has stopped functioning.

If fugitive general Ratko Mladić had not been arrested by the time the Hague Tribunal closed down, the UN would develop mechanisms to enable a trial of the suspected war criminal before an international court. Quoted by the German newspasper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Brammertz said that the group of people supporting and aiding the war crimes fugitive was not the same group that had been helping Radovan Karadžić to hide for several years.

If Mladić were arrested soon, Brammertz said that there was a possibility that his trial could be joined with the ongoing Karadžić process. He added that he maintained “optimism that Mladić will be arrested before the Tribunal closes its doors.”

Deputy PM takes IMF delegation to car factory

On 16 February Deputy PM Mladan Dinkic and a visiting International Monetary Fund delegation toured the Fiat Serbia factory based at Kragujevac. He said his talks with the delegation included discussion on ways to improve competitiveness of Serbia's exports. “We have brought the IMF mission to Fiat Automobili Srbija (Fiat Automobiles Serbia) factory to show our export potential,” Dinkic said after the tour of the factory.

The future of export growth lay in encouraging similar companies "with incentives benefits which the state will offer to big investors", he explained. “I have brought the IMF to Kragujevac to show them what we are doing on reconstructing our economy and what the government is doing to attract investors and increase Serbian exports.”

Fiat Automobili Srbija would make €1.5 billion from sales abroad in 2012, equivalent to a quarter of Serbia’s total exports in 2009.

The IMF mission was in Serbia to negotiate the third revision of a stand-by arrangement with Serbia worth €2.9 billion. Dinkic was unwilling to comment on the talks so far. “This is only one segment of the visit, and I thought that it is good for them to see real life in Serbia too, beside the numbers and figures, because they have only been to Belgrade so far,“ the minister emphasised.

Giovanni De Filippis, Director of Fiat Automobili Srbija, announced that the company would soon several contract companies for the reconstruction of the factory which will cost €150 million.

The report of the IMF mission's after their visit to Serbia will determine whether the country will be able to use the third tranche worth €350 million. Serbia has so far withdrawn €1.12 million of the IMF loan approved in May 2009.

Serbia's EU Integration Office

News about Kosovo

back to News index

Russian migrant wins gold and silver medals for Slovakia

Russian-born Anastasia Kuzmina won both gold and silver medals for Slovakia at the Winter Olympics. Her success came as a surprise as Slovakia had no medal expectations for its athletes in Vancouver. It was Slovakia’s first ever gold medal at a Winter Olympics.

On 13 February Anastasia Kuzminová (the Slovak form of her name) triumphed in the opening 7.5 km sprint of the biathlon competition, which combines cross-country skiing and shooting at targets from a rifle. She followed it up three days later with a silver medal in the 10 km pursuit race.

After an initially uncertain reaction to Anastasia’s victory in Slovakia due to her Russian roots, the skier was embraced by the public. A celebration is now planned for her homecoming in Banská Bystrica. “It’s only just beginning to sink in what I’ve accomplished,” Kuzmina said after the second race.

Anastasia Kuzmina moved to Banská Bystrica after being dropped from the biathlon team of her native country Russia due to her “lack of potential”. Her Russian-born husband and coach, Daniel Kuzmin, said she had benefited from starting early in the first race, as warm weather quickly turned the track to mush and slowed the later skiers.

Kuzmina has lived with her husband, also a biathlete, and their three-year-old son Jenisej in a modest block of flats in the city of Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia since 2007. Before that she competed for her native Russia, but after she became pregnant she was dropped from the team by national biathlon coach Alexander Tichonov, who told her that she had no future as an athlete.

In an interview with the Plus 7 dní weekly paper Natalia Kuzmina, Anastasia’s mother-in-law, explained “Athletes in Russia are subjected to enormous pressure, and they are expected to produce results come what may. With all the competition, there is no room for people who don’t walk the straight and narrow. So when Anastasia got pregnant, they wrote her off.”

Anastasia came to live with her husband, who had moved to Banská Bystrica years before and had taken Israeli citizenship to make travelling and competing easier. While her son was still a baby she returned to training and joined the Dukla Banská Bystrica sports club. “The big difference for me was that in Slovakia they allowed me to be with my family while I was in training,” she said.

In 2008 the Dukla club supported her application for a Slovak passport, saying she would make a contribution to the country through the sport, and therefore deserved an exemption from Slovakia’s otherwise strict citizenship rules. Last year she was nominated to the Slovak biathlon team for the Vancouver Olympics, and although she broke her arm in a fall in October, she managed to recuperate in time for the Olympics.

Kuzmina, who is ranked only 28th in world biathlon, sang her new national anthem as she stood on the podium, and with her heavily accented Slovak charmed viewers who were initially sceptical of her right to be Slovak. “Slovakia gave me another chance, and I’m very grateful,” she said after the medal ceremony. “When they were playing the national anthem I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t because all the liquids had been sucked out of my body during the doping tests.”

SDKÚ losing votes despite polls suggesting swing to centre-right parties

There has been much turmoil recently around the SDKÚ party (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union). Prime Minister Robert Fico had accused the party of money laundering. The centre-right parties had failed form a broad pre-election coalition, and recent opinion polls show declining support for the SDKÚ, despite a general trend of rising support for centre-right parties and decline in support for parties with a more nationalistic agenda.

On 16 February a voter preference poll published by the Focus agency showed support for the principal government party Smer (Direction) had fallen from 41.4% in January to 38.6% in February. The junior government coalition members did not fare much better, with support for the SNS (Slovak National Party) stagnating at 6.2% and support for the HZDS (Movement for a Democratic Slovakia) falling to only 5.8%.

Meanwhile support for a newer centre-right party, Richard Sulík’s SaS (Freedom and Solidarity) increased in the same period from 5.1% to 9.6%.

Heritage encyclopædia now available in English

The Illustrated Encyclopædia of Monuments in Slovakia is large in size – and equally expansive in content. The publication introduces the artistic and architectural sights of the country in the context of their respective regions and, at first sight, it seems that the authors have not forgotten anything, as there are locations listed and described in the book that even many Slovaks have never heard of before.

The authors work with regions divided geographically into South-West, North-West, the Cradle of the Country, South of Central Slovakia, Central Slovakia, Northern Slovakia, East of the Tatras and Eastern Slovakia. A map in the introductory pages depicts these divisions and serves as a reference tool for the reader.

Illustrated Encyclopædia of Monuments in Slovakia
can be ordered on-line

back to News index

Rescue needed for Slovenian Railways

At the beginning of October 2009, Goran Branković became the CEO of Slovenske železnice (Slovenian Railways), the eighth in the last five years. He took over a railway monopoly that was overburdened by debts and losses. The company is owned by the Slovenian government, which promised at the beginning of 2010 to provide millions of euros to help the company avoid bankruptcy.

In an interview in early February Branković said that he was confident that the company could become successful in goods transport. He need to expand that part of its business. A small success in this regard was his recent meeting with the CEO of Deutsche Bahn, which is especially interested in co-operation with Slovenske železnice in the field of cargo traffic.

“It is true that cargo traffic is our only money-losing activity, but this is significantly connected to the economic crisis, because 90 percent of the cargo is transported in international traffic. We have been paying the utmost attention to cargo traffic. Our goal is to adapt the operations to the new conditions as quickly as possible and try to seize new opportunities.” He had his eye on expansion into the new markets in south-eastern Europe. “We are also developing a modern logistics terminal in Moste, optimising the operation processes, enlarging productivity and rationalising material costs. All of these activities should eventually bring some positive results.”

The Kurent mask – a vivid tradition

Shrovetide heralds the largest carnival in Slovenija, which this February entered its 50th year. Alongside the River Drava, the town Ptuj dates back to the Stone Age; it is the oldest town in Slovenija. Located roughly 130 km north-east of Ljubljana and 30 km south-east of Maribor, Ptuj is full of history. Its stories are revealed in churches, monasteries, wine cellars, at the castle and in many other places.

One unique and important element is Kurent (or korant), a unique character in Shrovetide tradition. Its main purpose is to chase away evil and introduce good. Part of that heritage is a procession of masks in the streets of Ptuj.

It was on Shrove Sunday, 27 February 1960, that the first organised event, called Kurentovanje, was held in Ptuj, featuring traditional carnival masks in a parade. To the sound of music played by a local band, the ones to lead the procession were the dancing spearmen followed by ploughmen, rusa, a bear, fairies, cockerels and Kurents. In subsequent years the traditional masks from Markovci were joined by ploughmen from Lancova Vas, log-haulers from Cirkovci and mourners coming from Hajdina.

More recently there has been an added international dimension in Ptuj when local and Slovene traditional masks were joined by masks from Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Hungary, Austria and Italy, attracting thousands of spectators to the Kurentovanje carnival.

Balance of power changes in government coalition

On 26 January Karl Erjavec resigned from his position as Minister of the Environment. His decision came after a heated debate in parliament. Erjavec is the populist leader of DeSUS, one of the parties in the government coalition. Facing a vote of no confidence as a minister, he did not have enough votes to survive the vote on his future. Crucially, he had lost the support of Prime Minister Borut Pahor, who had asked Parliament to dismiss the minister.

The change in the political balance of power within the ruling coalition comes because of the unique position of Erjavec’s party DeSUS in the governing coalition. More than just an ordinary political party, DeSUS is also a powerful interest group representing a crucial segment of the electorate – retirees. Its unique position had initially given DeSUS – and its leader – a disproportionate amount of leverage. This power was evident when the government gave in to the DeSUS demands for pension increases for thousands of low-earning retirees.

Under Janez Janša in the previous government Erjavec had been Minister of Defence when the scandal over the Patria Affair broke, centred around bribes for defence contracts. When the new government was formed after the September 2008 elections, several partners were quick to veto his bid to remain Minister of Defence.

However, the new coalition needed DeSUS support, so Erjavec was offered a consolation post: The Ministry of the Environment. It was in effect a trap. The ministry had been plagued with managerial problems for quite some time. Shortly afterwards the Court of Audit ruled that Erjavec’s ministry had failed to establish an efficient system of separate waste collection and had managed its finances poorly. The Court of Audit called on Erjavec to step down. Erjavec announced he would file for a constitutional review of the law governing the Court of Audit – it was wrong for the judicial branch to interfere with the executive branch and violated the principle of separation of powers.

It seemed likely that DeSUS would drop out of the governing coalition. But within DeSUS there were internal divisions, and although the party was going to reconsider its position, DeSUS will almost certainly remain a part of the governing coalition without Erjavec.

Links:  
Information about Slovenija
Index to Slovenian government sites  (right hand column for versions in English)

back to News index

Yanukovych sworn in as President

Viktor Yanukovych, the opposition leader who won Ukraine's recent election, has been sworn in as the new president. But Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the outgoing President, Viktor Yushchenko, did not attend the ceremony on 25 February in Kiev. Where MPs belonging to the Tymoshenko bloc would normally sit there was a block of empty seats in the parliament chamber. Tymoshenko has persisted in saying that Yanukovych had won through fraud and refuses to recognise his victory.

After taking the oath, Viktor Yanukovych acknowledged the divisions in parliament and Ukraine's economic difficulties. In his speech, Yanukovych said that Ukraine was “a bridge between the East and the West, an integral part both of Europe and of the former USSR”. He pledged to develop a foreign policy that would allow the country to “reap maximum rewards by developing mutually beneficial ties with Russia, the EU, the US and other states”.

Yanukovych gets his main voting support from the Russian-speaking east and south of the country. In the Ukrainian-speaking west and centre, he lost every region to Yulia Tymoshenko. Nevertheless his advisers have said his first foreign visit as president will be to the EU headquarters in Brussels, not to Moscow.

Tymoshenko drops legal challenge but stays in post

It was reported on 20 February that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had dropped her legal challenge to the victory of Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential election.

The Central Electoral Commission declared on 14 February that Yanukovych had won the vote by a margin of 3.48%. When Tymoshenko lodged her appeal on 16 February the Supreme Administrative Court in Kiev suspended the result. But she then complained that the court proceedings were biased against her. "Given that the court is refusing to establish the truth in essence, I withdrew my lawsuit at today's morning sitting of the Supreme Administrative Court and asked the court to stop this show, which bears no resemblance to justice," she said.

Despite her claim that the election was marred by "systemic, fundamental and general falsifications" international monitors had deemed the vote free and fair. She said that more than a million votes, decisive to the outcome, had been invalid. But she would not call people onto the streets to protest, as she had done during the Orange Revolution after the 2004 presidential election. In that election Viktor Yanukovych had been pronounced the winner, only for the result to be overruled because of vote-rigging.

After this election Yanukovych has said he would not be able to work with her as Prime-Minister, but would rather see her as leader of the parliamentary opposition. But Tymoshenko has refused to step down.

It will depend next on whether a new coalition can be formed in parliament strong enough to vote Tymoshenko out and to choose a new government.

Ukraine has been in political deadlock for several years, undermining its ability to deal with a severe economic crisis. The budget for 2010 has still not been approved, and a vital IMF loan depends on proof of political stability.

What is more likely now is that, once installed, Viktor Yanukovych will call early general elections, hoping to change the balance in parliament.

Voting outcome of Presidential election still disputed

In the second round of the Presidential election the two remaining candidates appeared neck-and-neck. After counting 99.98% of ballots from the district election commissions, the Central Electoral Commission said that Victor Yanukovych, leader of the Party of Regions, had won 48.96% of votes, and rival candidate, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, had received 45.47% of votes.

Yanukovych had the support of 12,479,684 voters, while Tymoshenko was supported by 11,589,624. The turnout was 69.07%.

Several exit-polls had predicted 48.5-50.26% support for Yanukovych in the second round of the presidential elections and 44.2-45.7% supported Tymoshenko – the apparent gap being 3 to 6%.

A monitoring delegation of eight members of the European Parliament have confirmed that both rounds of presidential election in Ukraine met most of the country's international commitments, the delegates said in a press release issued on Monday 8 February.

"The door to Europe should be open to Ukraine. Orderly elections are an important signal for European public opinion that today Ukraine is a normal European country that has the right to make its European choice. I hope that this choice will be supported by the signing of the Association Agreement and the relaxation of visa requirements. I will be pursuing these goals as head of the EU-Ukraine delegation," said the delegation head and chairman of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Co-operation Committee in the European Parliament, Pawel Kowal from Poland.

Rebecca Harms, a German member the MEP Greens/European Free Alliance called on both candidates to accept the result and - in case of doubt - to let the courts decide. She also called on the Commissioner-designate for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fuele, to put a special emphasis on Ukraine, and to support democratic development in Ukraine.

Slovenia's MEP Alojz Peterle of the European People's Party said: "We visited 14 polling stations yesterday, both urban and rural, and were impressed with the high level of attention to rules and procedures. I think we can safely say that Ukraine has raised the level of electoral standards and can be a good example for many other countries. In addition, despite strong polarisation and electoral law changes between the first and the second round of elections, the elections were conducted peacefully and no major tension was felt at the polling stations." German MEP Barbara Weiler from the same group said that it would not be possible to improve the election process in Ukraine without tackling the issue of rules for the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns.

However the campaign office for Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the next day that it was planning a legal challenge to the results. The campaign was ready to provide its evidence to international observers, reporters, the public and the courts. Documents had already been submitted to the Central Election Commission with a demand that votes be recounted at over 900 polling stations.

Tymoshenko's supporters said she would not concede until appeals had run their course and recounts had taken place at the disputed polling stations. In some instances they were claiming an 8% discrepancy in the recorded votes and the published result.  Tymoshenko was planning to demand a third round of voting.

Yanukovych's Party of Regions, meanwhile, rejected calls for further scrutiny of the election. "There will be no third round," Mykola Azarov, deputy head of the Party of Regions, told parliament on 9 February. "They are dragging us into an unnecessary war."

Joao Soares, head of the observation mission from the OSCE parliamentary assembly, urged Ukraine's politicians to heed the official vote tally. "It is now time for the country's political leaders to listen to the people's verdict and make sure that the transition of power is peaceful and constructive," he said.

Russian spy scandal erupts on eve of presidential vote

Ukraine's security service said on 2 February that it had foiled a Russian plot by arresting five Russian intelligence agents operating in the south of the country, alleged to be on a mission to steal state secrets.

The Security Service (SBU) reported that four of the purported agents had been expelled from the country while one, a colonel, was still being detained. "On 27 January, the SBU foiled an operation by Russian agents in the region of Odessa", SBU chief Valentin Nalyvaichenko was quoted as saying. The agents from Russia's FSB security service "were trying illegally to obtain Ukrainian secrets through blackmail and threats … They were caught red-handed."

In a statement released in Moscow, the FSB confirmed that its "employee" had been detained on Ukrainian territory, but was surprised that the matter had not been dealt with more discreetly.

It is the latest incident between Moscow and Kiev whose relations have been soured by a succession of rows ranging from energy supplies to the interpretation of history under President Viktor Yushchenko, who had just been eliminated in the first round of presidential elections. The SBU operates under the control of the President.

back to News index