- Serbian Parliament elects new government
153 of the 199 members of the Serbian National Assembly voted in favor of the new government, 46 against it, and 51 were absent. The new government saw support from the ruling coalition. The opposition parties present at the session voted against it, while some of the opposition members chose not to attend the meeting.
The new government will be led by Djuro Matsut, one of Serbia’s leading experts in endocrinology.
The government consists of 30 ministers, two thirds of whom were part of the previous cabinet.
Among the new members is the critic of the student protests, a professor at the University of Belgrade, Dejan Vuk Stanković, who has been appointed Minister of Education.
Deme Berisha, a retired soldier with the Serbian Armed Forces, has been elected Minister of Human Rights and Minority Rights. He heads the organization of Albanians in Serbia, Matica Albaniana, but has repeatedly spoken out against Kosovo’s independence.
Pro-Russian politician Aleksandar Vulin, whose appointment was opposed by the European Union, was not included in the government. Still, the pro-Russian bloc in the new government has been preserved.
The leader of the pro-Kremlin Zavetinici party, Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski, remains in the government. She will head the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, instead of the Ministry of Family Care and Demography.
Nenad Popovic, who was put on the U.S. sanctions list for his affiliation with sanctioned Russian companies, retained his position as minister without portfolio.
The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications will be headed by a new head, Boris Bratina, a supporter of friendship with Russia and an EU critic. A few years ago, he burned the European Union flag at a rally. Bratina is an associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in North Mitrovica, Kosovo, working in the Serbian system and not recognized by the Kosovo authorities, and member of the Editorial Board of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) Journal.
- Albania opens another cluster in negotiations with EU
The fourth Albania-EU Intergovernmental Conference in Luxembourg marked the start of negotiations with Albania on Cluster 2: “Internal Market”.
The cluster includes the following negotiation chapters:
Chapter 1 – Free movement of goods,
Chapter 2 – Freedom of movement of workers,
Chapter 3 – Right of establishment and freedom to provide services,
Chapter 4 – Free movement of capital,
Chapter 6 – Company law,
Chapter 7 – Intellectual property law,
Chapter 8 – Competition policy,
Chapter 9 – Financial services,
Chapter 28 – Consumer and health protection
“EU enlargement remains at the core of our priorities. This concrete progress reflects our strong commitment towards our partners in the Western Balkans, a region which is key for the stability and security of the European Union,” stressed Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, the country that currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
At a joint press conference with Minister Sikorski and Marta Kos, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama expressed his gratitude to the Polish EU presidency “for its stable leadership and unwavering commitment to advancing this process.” Albania’s dynamic European integration process will help strengthen the position of the ruling Socialist Party led by Rama ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for May 11.
- Serbian president plans to attend May 9 parade in Moscow despite EU warning
The European Union has said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s visit to Moscow on May 9 would violate EU criteria for candidate countries and could block Serbia’s European integration process.
Latvian Foreign Minister Bajba Braže said that during a dinner with Western Balkan partners on April 14, the issue of harmonizing the foreign and security policies of candidate countries and the EU was discussed. According to her, the talks included “very clear instructions from EU member states” that candidate countries should not participate in the May 9 parade in Moscow.
“What was also discussed very clearly, and said by different member states [of the EU], is that any participation in the 9 May parades or celebrations in Moscow will not be taken lightly on the European side, considering that Russia is really waging a full-scale war in Europe,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas told reporters. The EU, she said, has also made it very clear that the bloc does not want to see any candidate country to participate in these events on May 9 in Moscow.
The EU needs to make sure potential members understand that certain decisions come at a high cost, said Estonian Foreign Ministry Secretary General Jonatan Vseviov. The consequence will be that they will not join the European Union, he added.
However, Serbia’s president responded by saying that his plans had not changed.
“We are approaching a period of great diplomatic activity, as well as great pressure on the occasion of the Victory Parade on May 9 in Moscow, 80 years since the victory over fascism, in which I alongside a unit of the Serbian army announced our participation. I do not know what others will decide, whether the army will be able to withstand pressure, but I have not changed my decision until now. I am ready for the whole sky to fall on my head,” Vučić said on April 16.
If the Serbian president’s plans are implemented and he does travel to Moscow, it will be seen as a demarche that will indicate that Belgrade is ready to suspend the European integration process.
- Serbian students continue their protests
During a pro-government demonstration on April 12, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced the end of the “color revolution”.
The central rally as part of the three-day “We Will Not Give Up Serbia” campaign on the occasion of the founding of a new political alliance around Vučić, the Movement for the People and the State, was held outside the Parliament Building in Belgrade.
In his speech, Vučić also voiced demands on behalf of the participants of the campaign to state institutions “to restore order and peace in the country”, stating that he would not give up on them until they were fulfilled.
Meanwhile, protests in Serbia continue.
On the evening of April 16, several thousand people gathered in Kraljevo for another large rally. The day before, students and high school students participating in the blockade of their educational facilities came to Kraljevo on foot from several cities in Serbia.
In Belgrade, the blocking of Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) has been going on since the evening of April 14.
Protesters accuse the state media service of incomplete and biased coverage of student protests. According to their statement, RTS failed to report on students who rode their bicycles to Strasbourg, France, in order to draw the attention of the European public to the situation in Serbia.
On April 16, student representatives from Serbia reached Strasbourg, France, on bicycles. The participants of the effort visited the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights, handed over their appeals, and told European officials about the key demand of the protests – to ensure the political and criminal accountability of the Serbian authorities for the death of 16 people due to the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad train station.
- Sudan decides to recognize Kosovo’s independence
This was announced by Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani. She posted on social media a video of a meeting with Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Yusuf al-Sharif on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey, noting she had received a message from the Sudanese minister that the Sudanese president had decided to recognize Kosovo and that the two countries would establish diplomatic relations.
Sudan’s recognition comes a few weeks after another country on the African continent, Kenya, confirmed such recognition. The Kosovo president stressed that the pace of recognition will not wane.
As in the case of Kenya, Serbian officials, as well as some analysts, are talking about a lobbying campaign by Pristina representatives to obtain recognition for Kosovo. It is believed that former Kosovo Foreign Minister and President of Kosovo Behgjet Pacolli, who is currently in the opposition, played a key role to this end. Gaining more recognition for Kosovo could help Pacolli return to power.
- Serbia declares Croatian citizens “undesirable” over “security threat”
The Croatian Embassy in Belgrade received reports of the expulsion of three Croatian nationals from Serbia on April 7-9. Croatian Ambassador to Serbia Hidayet Bišević told reporters that, according to available reports, the decision to expel the Croatian citizens was made on the grounds that they allegedly pose a threat to Serbia’s security.
The head of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and a Croatian citizen who has lived in Belgrade for 12 years and has a family there – a husband and a minor child – were among those deemed non gratae in Serbia.
The Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to Serbia over “unacceptable behavior towards Croatian citizens” “without any solid arguments.”
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on April 10 demanded explanations from Belgrade about the expulsion of three Croatian citizens, which he called “unacceptable”, rejecting “insinuations that our citizens are in any way interfering in the internal affairs of Serbia”.
On April 11, the European Commission expressed its concern about the expulsion of Croatian citizens from Serbia.
“We are concerned about reports that authorities have ordered EU citizens to leave Serbia on the grounds that they allegedly pose a security risk,” said Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier. “Measures undertaken to protect national security must be carried out in accordance with Serbian legal provisions, as well as EU and international standards for the protection of human rights, and such measures should not result in the restriction of freedom of movement of any individual, including foreign nationals,” Mercier added.
In total, in recent months, the Serbian authorities have decided to expel 16 Croatian citizens on charges of posing a security threat, and another 16 Croatian citizens have been banned from entering Serbia.
The Croatian Prime Minister believes that the expulsion of Croats from Serbia is not an isolated incident, but rather a “system” that must be stopped. “Any internal political issues in Serbia” should not affect Croatia or its citizens, Plenković stressed.
As is known, the Serbian authorities have previously accused Croatia of being involved in organizing student protests (“color revolution”) in Serbia. Although no evidence has been provided to back these allegations, the campaign to expel Croatians is apparently connected with these accusations by Belgrade.
After the first cases of entry bans and expulsions of Croatian citizens from Serbia a few months ago, officials in Zagreb have already recommended that Croatian citizens postpone all non-essential trips to Serbia.
- North Macedonia, Hungary sign Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Cooperation
The agreement establishes “institutional and formal” cooperation between the two countries’ ministries of European affairs and aims to facilitate the Balkan country’s integration into the European Union. The cooperation will include training courses and internship programs for officials, with a particular focus on the effective use of EU funding.
“There is a strong strategic partnership between Hungary and North Macedonia, based on shared values and mutual interests, and this also applies to issues related to the European integration process,” János Boka, the Hungarian Minister for European Affairs, said after talks in Skopje on April 11.
“This partnership brings concrete support on our path to the EU through the exchange of experience, expertise and a common approach to integration challenges,” stressed North Macedonia’s Minister for European Affairs, Orhan Murtezani.
The memorandum of cooperation is another step in building a special relationship between Budapest and Skopje. Viktor Orbán continues to actively build his network of supporters in the Western Balkans, relying on North Macedonia, as well as Serbia and the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a bid to strengthen his international and regional influence.
