Belgrade, 19. 01. 2010.

SERBIA – REGION

• DELEVIC: GOOD NEIGHBOR RELATIONS PREREQUISITE FOR EU
• MESIC: I WOULD SEND ARMY IF DODIK HELD REFERENDUM
• SIMONOVIC: IF SERBIA CONDEMNS AGGRESSION, LAWSUIT WITHDRAWN
• MILIBAND: INITIATIVE ON SREBRENICA RESOLUTION IS WELCOME
• MORATINOS: SERBIA IS CRUCIAL COUNTRY IN REGION

• VIENNA SUPPORTS GREEK INITIATIVE FOR WESTERN BALKANS

• INTERNATIONAL HOTELIERS CONGRESS OPENS
• MINISTRY OF FINANCE EXPECTS NO PROBLEMS WITH WB LOANS

• MINISTER FOR KOSOVO IN FAVOR OF OVERCOMING DIVISIONS IN KIM
• BECHTEL AND ENKA TO BUILD HIGHWAY IN KOSOVO

BELGRADE, Jan 18 (Tanjug) - Director of the EU Integration Office Milica Delevic stated that the good neighbor relations between the states in the Western Balkans will be one the criteria for the EU accession. In an interview for the Radio Free Europe, Delevic pointed out that this was also a criterion for the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe to join the EU. "The criterion is more formalized in case of the Western Balkan countries, bearing in mind the difficult war history that these countries had. Therefore, the EU insists on good neighbor relations as one of the criteria," Delevic pointed out. Speaking about the relations between the regional states, she stated that since the change of the regime in Croatia and Serbia in 2000, all countries in the region had governments that were pro-democratic and orientated toward market economy and the idea of EU integration. "You cannot overcome all problems easily and right away. However, it is irrefutable that since then, the whole region moves toward the EU integration and that this is the basis for easier cooperation between the countries," Delevic said. Discussing Serbia's potential NATO accession, Delevic said that NATO membership is not a prerequisite for Serbia's EU admission. According to her, if Serbia moves toward the membership, at the end the citizens will declare at a referendum.

ZAGREB, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - Outgoing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said that, if Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik violated the Dayton Agreement by holding a referendum on secession, he would immediately send the Croatian army to block the Brcko corridor, thus paralyzing RS, which would "need to disappear right away," Croatian daily Novi List.In an informal talk with the press on Monday, Mesic said that Croatia is a guarantor of the Dayton Peace Accords, and that if he was the Croatian president at the moment of the possible referendum in RS, he would use military force to cut off the Bosnian Posavina corridor."It is unbelievable how much Dodik is trying to play the international community," Mesic said, and added that the RS prime minister is playing the fatigue card because he thinks the world will grow tired of Bosnia-Herzegovina and he will be able to hold a referendum on secession."Some people will protest for a few days, but then everything will settle down and the Greater Serbia will become a reality," Mesic said, adding that it remains to be seen how the new president, Ivo Josipovic, will deal with this situation.Mesic has already expressed the same opinion, albeit in less emphatic terms, to the representatives of the international community, the paper writes.The Brcko corridor is a 15 kilometer-wide strip of territory stretching from north to south which connects the east and west parts of RS at the town of Brcko, and it is located some 30 kilometers from the Croatian border crossing of Zupanja.During the war, the corridor was the site of major military and political conflict, because it is crucial to the survival of RS and its capital Banja Luka.

ZAGREB, Jan 18 (Tanjug) - Croatia's Minister of Justice Ivan Simonovic stated that Zagreb should withdraw the lawsuit against Serbia before the ICJ in The Hague if Serbia condemns, as he put it, aggression against Croatia. He said in an interview for the Zagreb-based daily Vecernji List that preconditions for the withdrawal of the lawsuits include Serbia's readiness to condemn crimes committed by Slobodan Milosevic and his assistants, adequate punishments for all perpetrators of war crimes, enabling disclosure of the whole truth on the missing persons and return of Croatia's cultural wealth. When asked to quote part of Serbia's counter lawsuit, Simonovic said that the document is being thoroughly analyzed by the Croatian legal team. Since Serbia has not spoken publicly about the lawsuit's content yet, I will not do that as well, the minister said. However, he said that one chapter of about ten pages of the basic text of Serbia's counter-lawsuit refers to the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), adding that there are 230 pages of documentation that refer to the issue. According to Simonovic, the Serbian lawsuit tries to imply that the Croatian Serbs feared to be tortured in the nineties just as they were in the time of the NDH, but is also says that Milosevic's media incited the fear. Speaking about the part of the lawsuit that refers to the genocide against Serbs in the NDH, Simonovic said that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted after World War II, and it is clear in the preamble of the Croatian constitution that there is no continuity between the NDH and today's Croatia.

LONDON, Jan 18 (Tanjug) - British Foreign Minister David Miliband welcomed the initiative of President Boris Tadic that the Serbian parliament should adopt the Srebrenica resolution. "I think this is a very welcome initiative. I hope it prospers and is not resisted or misused," Miliband stated in his blog on the website of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The British minister pointed out that amidst all the terrible crimes of the nineties, Srebrenica stands out. This was the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II, Miliband said, adding that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have both determined that acts of genocide were committed at Srebrenica. "Facing up to the past can be painful. Srebrenica is seen, across the world, rightly as a grim reminder of the depths to which people can sink when dictators whip up ethnic hatred, and the outside world doesn't intervene in time," he said. Miliband also pointed out that the present Serbian Government is working hard to find General Ratko Mladic, who has been charged with responsibility for the atrocity in Srebrenica.

VIENNA, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos assessed in Vienna that Serbia is a crucial country in the West Balkan region, adding that Madrid supports its request for receiving the candidate status for EU accession. In his address to the Permanent Council of the OSCE, Moratinos said that the European perspective of the western Balkans is very important and that all regional countries should head in the direction of the EU. All western Balkan countries are on their way towards the EU and Spain supports them in that path, Moratinos pointed out. Serbia is the crucial country in the region and Spain, as the one currently presiding over the EU, is pleased about the submitting of the request for receiving the candidate status, he stressed. When it comes to Croatia, Moratinos expressed hope that there will be some progress in the following months, so that negotiations with that country could be completed in 2010. According to Moratinos, it is important that all the West Balkan countries that tend to join the EU fulfill the necessary conditions, and Spain intends to support them in it. Moratinos stressed that the Corfu dialogue on European security should be used as a possibility, as this process reactivated the role of OSCE and it offers a strategic perspective. The Corfu process showed that security in Europe has a global and indivisible character, Moratinos underscored.

ATHENS/VIENNA, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - Austria supports the Greek initiative that the countries of Western Balkans enter the EU by 2014, the Athens News Agency (ANA) has reported, quoting Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger who will arrive at Athens. Spindelegger, as reported, made such claim in the late Monday interview for the national television, pointing out that Austria will join Greece in the attempt to realize the idea of Athens. Speaking of his encounter with Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece Dimitris Drucas, he said that they will also discuss the Greek-Macedonian conflict, and expressed his hope that the dispute could be solved in the spring. The conflict is related to the disagreement of Skopje and Athens on the naming of the once most southern republic of the former SFRY, because Greece opposes to its northern neighbor's intention to call itself Macedonia, since this is the name of the northern Greek province. Spindelegger concluded that he and his host will define "the joint initiative for Western Balkans".

BELGRADE, Jan 18 (Tanjug) - Serbia earned around USD 900 million from tourism in 2009, and the number of overnight stays by foreign tourists increased by six percent, said Minister of Economy Mladjan Dinkic, opening the 47th Congress of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA). Speaking at the gathering at the Continental Hotel, Dinkic said that this was a success in the year of crisis, when many European countries recorded a turnover drop of three percent, but that the influx of foreign currency is still unsatisfactory because it is far below that of comparable tourist destinations. He assessed that the congress is a remarkable chance for Serbia to market itself as an attractive tourist destination, adding that the country used to be a much more important destination for congress tourism and that it can become one again."In order to recapture our former glory, we need first of all to improve the services offered. Quality, good service, good hosts and a good time are the most important things," Dinkic believes. The minister announced that on Monday night as part of the congress, a document will be signed between IHRA and the International Labor Organization, which will define the position of employees in these industries.

BELGRADE, Jan 18 (Tanjug) - Assistant to the Minister of Finance Zoran Cirovic stated that he does not expect that there will be any problems in the financing of program and project loans that the WB has granted to Serbia although the realization of certain projects is late. Cirovic confirmed in a statement for Tanjug that when it comes to the realization of the so far approved program loans that are directed at the budget support and public finances reform, Serbia is not late, but that the drawing of funds for certain projects is slowed down such, as the project of the pension system reform or the rehabilitation project of irrigation and drainage systems. "The WB has not envisaged a great amount of credit funds that would be directed toward Serbia. Along with three program loans that amount to USD 200 million, we have one project loan in the Budget Law that amounts to USD 100 million and is intended for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads," Cirovic said. Cirovic underscored that as for the program loans granted in 2009, there is no delay. When it comes to the project loans, the situation is slightly different, Cirovic said, adding that in the group, the key loan was the one for Corridor 10 that amounts to EUR 275.2 million. "That one was signed on July 13, 2009 and ratified, however, the drawing of funds has not been started yet. I suppose that the tender procedure has not been completed yet," Cirovic said. "As for the dated arrangements with the WB, the dynamics of funds withdrawal is really unsatisfactory," Cirovic said.

BELGRADE, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - Minister for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Goran Bogdanovic stated Monday evening that everything must be done so as to overcome the divisions within the Serb community in Strpce municipality, pointing out that these divisions do not benefit the Serbs in KiM. In a statement for B92, Bogdanovic said that these divisions can be overcome by talks, adding that he urged the heads of Strpce municipality that unity is necessary and that Serbs must not be separated to those who voted at the local elections called by the authorities in Pristina and those who did not. Bogdanovic underscored that the government supports local authorities elected in May 2008, and stressed that he will not allow for Strpce inhabitants to pay for the disputes between the two authorities. Strpce Municipal Assembly, which operates by the system of the Serbian government, called on the municipal authorities supported by the government in Pristina to leave the offices of the president and vice-president of the municipality, otherwise they will file criminal charges for usurpation of working premises. Commenting on the initiative of certain representatives of the international community and the Albanians' tendency to integrate the North of Kosovo into the so-called state, Bogdanovic said that this is completely unfeasible, adding that such intentions are dangerous and that they can cause new tensions and conflicts in northern Kosovo. "The plan envisages the integration of the Serb community into Kosovo institutions, which is entirely unacceptable for the population of northern Kosovo," Bogdanovic said.

PRISTINA, Jan 19 (Tanjug) - American-Turkish consortium Bechtel-Enka won the tender invited for the construction of the highway from Vrbnica to Merdare border crossings in Kosovo, the Pristina media reported Monday evening. Apart from the name of the company which will build the highway from the border crossing with Albania to the administrative line with Serbia, the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the highway construction did not reveal other details such as the cost of the construction. According to rough estimates, the construction of the 117 km-long highway will cost between EUR 700 and 800 million. The Bechtel-Enka company is also building a highway through Albania, towards Kosovo.