Leo van Doesburg

After the last elections in Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic was elected as new President for Serbia. Serbia's President-Elect, and Boris Tadic, the country's former president, have agreed that a new government must be formed as soon as possible. Tadic and Nikolic met on Monday at the presidential building in Belgrade to "discuss the transfer of duties". The pair talked about the goals that Serbia should achieve including better living standard, solving economic problems, European integration, fight against crime and corruption. Tadic, who briefly addressed media with Nikolic, said they have agreed that it was necessary to establish all the institutions as soon as possible.  (Source  Balkan Insight )

On 29 October, ECPM organized an important event in the Festive Room of the Vrsac City Hall in Voivodina (Serbia) together with the Alliance of Romanians in Voivodina and the National Council of the Romanian Minorities in Voivodina. Representatives of different communities that are living in the Voivodina province came together to discuss about ways for collaboration with each other and with the central government in order to promote the accession of Serbia into the European Union. The conference was attended by members of National Councils and representatives from the Croatian, Hungarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Rusynean, and Slovak communities in Voivodina, Besides the meeting was attended by the Provincial Secretary of Voivodina for Education, Self-Government and National Communities, A deputy from the parliament of Voivodina, vice President of the Vrsac community, and the local executive (and member of the community council of Vrsac) for minorities and religious affairs.

First of all I would like to say that I am honored and it is a pleasure to be at this important conference about “The positive-active role of Vojvodina-Serbian minorities in the Serbian EU integration process”.  It is great that the conference is taking place in the beautiful city of the “little top”, in Vrsac. The chosen theme is a very important and relevant one. Therefore let's split the title “The positive-active role of Vojvodina Serbian minorities in the Serbian EU integration process” in three parts, followed by a conclusion with some recommendations.

The first round of Belgrade-Pristina talks, which the EU mediator called "friendly but also honest", ended in Brussels on Wednesday. The head of the Serbian negotiating team, Borko Stefanovic, said that the talks showed that there was both the capacity and readiness to solve issues. He also pointed out that the EU mediation of the dialogue was very positive and status-neutral. EU mediator Robert Cooper, meanwhile, said the talks opened in a "good atmosphere". He said that the two sides discussed improving the legal certainty of people living in Kosovo, including through improving civil and cadastral registers, and improving economic cooperation in the region. He explained that the dialogue touched on issues that will be discussed in greater detail later on, such as air traffic, telecommunications and customs stamps. The first meeting within the first round of talks was held late on Tuesday, after several hours' of uncertainty as to whether or not the Kosovo team...

This morning we went to the International Church. They meet once in the two weeks and sometimes three times a month. Their church services are held in a hotel not far the center of Belgrade. Samuilo led the sermon and had a message to the people. In the afternoon we had an interesting meeting with him and with a representative of the IFES (EUS). Later on a professor from the political faculty with a young but very intelligent student were joining too. We discussed about possible projects focused on reconciliation and vision building with students and participants from all countries and areas of former Yugoslavia. After this I was running for another meeting with the representati ves of the Serbian Christian Democratic Movement and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. We discussed about collaboration for trainings of the members of the SCDM and about other activities we develop in the region. I was invited to share my experiences about the development of Christian Democracy in East Europe du...

This morning we had a breakfast with some friends from the Economic Diplomacy Seminar/ROM and the Boris Trajkovski Foundation. We made the conclusions of our visit and we talked about the Youth Leadership Forum next week. Auke and me hope to be present there (what will be a kind of Balkan trip epilogue). After this we went to pack our stuff and to have our last stop in Belgrade (Serbia) before we would leave back home in Timişoara. The 17 days trip to the Balkans is almost finished but went smooth. Interesting thing in Macedonia is that there are a lot of toll roads where you have to pay amounts between the €0,50 and €1,-. It is quite cheap but you have to stop many times. I was tired so I slept through the border with Serbia and easily we reached Belgrade. The circle of our round trip was now closed. In Belgrade we had to search a bit but we found the hotel quite easily. Tomorrow will be the last day of our trip with the drive back to Timişoara.

Today it was a day of rest and travel. In the morning we went for a coffee and a Serbian breakfast (we got Pleskavica with French fries) in a small cafeteria on the banks of the Danube river. When we finished, I showed Auke and Annechien the fortress. The park was nice, the weather great and the fortress looked more beautiful then I saw before because of the clear weather and sun, and the (probably) last snow of this winter. After this we went by car for the long trip to Sarajevo.After traveling through the city to find the right bridge (we almost went a bridge too far), we started a long trip. Auke found a shortcut so we passed Tuzla. We stopped there for a coffee and to eat something. I tried to contact some friends from the Wave project for a coffee, but they were unfortunately not in the city. It was actually not that bad, because after we left Tuzla we were confronted with a big fog and because it was dark, it was not easy to travel. However after a difficult road accompanied by t...

This morning we went to Pancevo where we met the leadership of the Alliance of Romanians in Vojvodina a p arty that became member of the ECPM. In an emotional discussion they explained the challenges of the Romanian minorities in Novi Sad and... the difficult relation they experience with the Romanian authorities in Bucharest.We discussed also about the relation between Novi Sad and the minorities and Belgrade. After a long discussion we agreed that a constructive and positive dialogue should be developed amongst the minorities and with Belgrade: not based on confrontation but based on dialogue and negotiation. In the afternoon we went to Belgrade and had a meeting with Dusica and the Serbian Christian Democratic Movement also a new member of the ECPM. It was good to speak with them and to hear that they already planned some trainings, investigating basic documents about Christian Democracy and different topics and formed already opinions on different actual issues. In the evening we ...

In the first two weeks of February, I'm travelling through the Balkans with Auke and Annechien. During this trip I will visit projects, will go on fact finding, meet collegues and friends etc. Day 1: Lenuca organized a meeting with the president and with a member of the Executive Board of the Assembly of the Municipality of Vrsat (resp for minorities and religious affairs)and with a deputy from the Provincial Assembly of Vojvodina. I discussed about ways how Vojvodina with many different minority groups can have a positive impact in the development of Serbia and its possible future accession to the EU. As a more autonomous province it would be good to work to construc...tively build up its local multi-etnical society based on the different minority groups that are living there, but also should become a positive motor for Serbia's possible future accession to the European Union.It is encouraging to hear that recently good laws were passed in the general assembly of Serbia concer...

EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday (25 October) will invite the European Commission to submit its opinion on Serbia's application for EU membership. But the ministers' conclusions, seen by WAZ.EUobserver, are to say bluntly that Serbia cannot go further toward EU accession without the arrest of war crimes suspects Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic and a constructive approach in the upcoming dialogue with Kosovo. Source: EU Observer: http://euobserver.com After two nights of long and tiring talks, the representatives of 26 EU countries and the Netherlands on Friday agreed the final text of the ministers' communique. The compromise consists of several elements: Ministers will voice strong support for Serbian president Boris Tadic; they will say Belgrade's attitude toward Kosovo is a key condition for further Serbian EU integration; and they will make clear Serbia cannot obtain official EU candidate status unless all EU member states, including the Netherland...