After two years of political impasse in Bosnia, the EU is preparing to strengthen its engagement and take sole charge of the international com-munity’s presence there.

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NEIGHBOURHOOD

1Friday • June 13 • 2008 NEWSNEWS

Issue No. 1 / Friday, June 13, 2008

Lure of Tadic Alliance Splits SocialistsWhile younger Socialists support joining a new, pro-EU government, old Milosevic loyalists threaten revolt over the prospect.

EDITOR’S WORD

Political PredictabilityBy Mark R. Pullen

Many of us who have experi-enced numerous Serbian elections rate ourselves as pundits when it comes to predicting election re-sults and post-election moves.

We feel in-the-know because our experience of elections in Ser-bia has shown us that (a.) no single party or coalition will ever gain the majority required to form a govern-ment, and (b.) political negotiations will never be quickly concluded.

Even when the Democrats achieved their surprising result at last month’s general election, it quickly became clear that the re-sult was actually more-or-less the same as every other election result in Serbia, i.e. inconclusive.

This is likely to continue as long as Serbia’s politicians form new political parties every time they disagree with their current party leader (there are currently 342 reg-istered political parties in Serbia).

Drawn-out negotiations are also the norm. One Belgrade-based Ambassador recently told me he was also alarmed by the distinct lack of urgency among Serbian politicians. “The country is at a standstill and I don’t understand their logic. If they are so eager to progress towards the EU and en-courage investors, how come they go home at 5pm sharp and don’t work weekends?”

Surely the situation is urgent enough to warrant a little overtime.

Costs Mounting

Economists are warning that pro-longed uncertainty over Serbia’s

future could scare off investors, lead to higher inflation and jeopardise prosperity for years to come.

“This year has been lost, from the standpoint of economic policy,” says Stojan Stamenkovic of the Econom-ics Institute in Belgrade.

Football Rebellion

While the football world watch-es events unfold at the Euro-

pean Championships in Austria and Switzerland, Bosnia is experiencing a soccer rebellion, led by fans, play-ers and former stars who are enraged by what they see as corrupt leaders of the country’s football association leaders.

By Rade Maroevic in Belgrade

Tense negotiations on a new gov-ernment have divided the ranks

of the Socialist Party, which holds the balance of power between the main blocs and has yet to announce which side they will support.

“It looks as if the Socialists will move towards a government led by the Democrats,” political analyst Mi-lan Nikolic, of the independent Cen-tre of Policy Studies, said. “But such a move might provoke deeper divi-sions and even split the party.”

Simultaneous negotiations held with the pro-European and national-ist blocs have drawn attention to a deep rift inside the Socialists.

This divides “old-timers” loyal

to Serbia’s late president, Slobodan Milosevic, and reformists who want the party to become a modern Euro-pean social democrat organisation.

After eight years of stagnation, the Socialists returned to centre stage after winning 20 of the 250 seats in parliament in the May 11 elections.

With the pro-European and nation-alist blocs almost evenly matched, the Socialists now have the final say on the fate of the country.

Nikolic believes the Socialists, led by Ivica Dacic, will come over to Tadic, if only out of a pragmatic de-sire to ensure their political survival.

“The group of younger Socialists gathered around Dacic seems to be in the majority”, Nikolic said, adding that these reformists believe the party

faces extinction unless it changes. However, a strong current also

flows in the opposite direction, led by party veterans enraged by the prospect of a deal with Tadic.

Mihajlo Markovic, a founder of the party, recently warned of a crisis if Dacic opts for the pro-European bloc, abandoning the Socialists’ “nat-ural” ideological partners.

Markovic, a prominent supporter of Milosevic during the 1990s, is seen as representative of the “old-timers” in the party who want to stay true to the former regime’s policies, even though these almost ruined the Socialists for good.

Some younger Socialist officials have voiced frustration over the con-tinuing impasse within their own

party over which way to turn. “The situation in the party seems

extremely complicated, as we try to convince the few remaining lag-gards that we need to move out of Milosevic’s shadow,” one Socialist Party official complained.

“Dacic will eventually side with Tadic in a bid to guide his party into the European mainstream, but much of the membership and many offi-cials may oppose that move.”

Nikolic agreed: “The question is will the party split or will the ‘old-timers’ back down,” he noted.

Fearing they might not cross the 5-per-cent threshold to enter parlia-ment, the Socialists teamed up with the Association of Pensioners and the United Serbia Party, led by business-man Dragan Markovic “Palma”.

Pensioners leader, Jovan Krkoba-bic, Palma and Dacic are all pushing for a deal with the Democrats.

The reported price is the post of deputy PM, with a brief in charge of security for the Socialist leader.

In addition, the Socialists are bar-gaining for other ministries, includ-ing capital investments, Kosovo and education, Belgrade media reported.

Tadic has denied talk of horse-trading with the Socialists, maintain-ing that ministries would go only to those committed to working for the government’s “strategic goal”.

At the same time, Dacic seems re-luctant to call off negotiations with the nationalists.

“If we don’t reach an agreement with the DSS and Radicals, the par-ty leadership will decide on future steps”, Dacic announced, following the first session of country’s new par-liament on Wednesday.Source: Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com)

Business Insight Neighbourhood Matters

Socialist leader Ivica Dacic remains the Serbian kingmaker

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Weekly Issue No. 11, Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Delta Holding, owned by Ser-bia’s wealthiest businessman, Miroslav Miskovic, says it

intends to bid for a 48-per-cent stake in the Slovenian supermarket and re-tail chain Mercator, the Serbian me-dia reported.

A successful acquisition would make Delta, which currently operates the Maxi and Tempo grocery chains in Serbia, the single largest retail op-erator in the Balkans.

“As Delta plans to expand its businesses throughout Southeastern Europe, such an acquisition would be a major contribution to the com-pletion of that aim,” Delta said in a statement.

On Thursday, both Pivovarna Lasko brewery and the Infond invest-ment fund announced they planned to sell their holdings in Mercator.

The two groups jointly own 48% of the group and state that they plan to invite tenders for their combined

Miroslav Miskovic has his eyes on Mercator Photo by Aleksandar Andjic

stake over the coming weeks and expect to conclude a sale by March. Infond owns 25 per cent of Mercator and is also the single largest stake-holder in Pivovarna Lasko.

Shares in Mercator dipped over 3 per cent on the announcement on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.

In Ljubljana, Bosko Srot, chair-man of Pivovarna Lasko, insisted the proposed sale of the company’s stake in Mercator was “not a consequence of the financial crisis”.

He added: “Mercator will not be sold to a financial institution but to a merchant, as Pivovarna Lasko wants to see the buyer opening markets for Mercator.” Meanwhile, Delta an-nounced it would launch talks with Pivovarna Lasko and would “inform the Slovenian government of its in-tentions”.

In 2005, just 16 per cent of Mer-cator’s revenue came from outside Slovenia. But since then it has be-come the second largest retail opera-tor in terms of market share, both in

neighbouring Croatia and in Serbia, Mercator currently operates 1,200

outlets in the Balkan region and turn-over in 2008 is expected to exceed 2.6 billion euros.

Matej Lahovnik, a former Slov-enian agriculture minister, said he was not surprised by Delta’s interest. “Pivovarna Lasko would not initiate the sale without sounding out poten-tial buyers,” he said.

However, Delta is not the only potential bidder. France’s Carrefour, Europe’s single largest retailer, and Croatia’s Agrokor, part owner of the Idea group, may also be interested in acquiring the stake, Slovenian media reported.

Delta Holding is Serbia’s fourth largest company with operations in import/export, banking, insurance, retail and wholesale. Through its var-ious subsidiaries it has established a presence throughout most of South-eastern Europe.

Earlier this year, Delta announced its expansion in Slovenia with a de-

velopment of a €240 million shopping mall in the capital, Ljubljana.

In 2006, media reported that Miskovic and Milan Beko, another Serbian businessman, were eyeing Mercator whose total estimated value was then €520 million.

“It would have been easier to pur-chase it back then, when more funds were readily available and lend-ing was on more favourable terms,” Goran Nikolic, an analyst with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, said.

Miskovic, reputedly Serbia’s richest person, was listed in a survey by Forbes magazine as the world’s 891st richest person, with an esti-mated wealth of $1 billion.

However, the Polish magazine Wprost, in 2007 put Miskovic’s wealth far higher, at an estimated $2 billion, placing him 42nd on its list of the world’s richest people and in fifth place on the list of the wealthiest people in the post-com-munist world outside the former Soviet Union.

Serbia’s Delta Eyes Slovenia’s Mercator

In an interview with Juliana Mojsi-lovic, Interior Minister, Ivica Dacic talks about Serbia’s efforts to co-operate with the Hague war crimes tribunal.

Serbia will not escape the global fi-nancial slump, says Miodrag Zecevic, executive director of marketing for Energoprojekt.

Page 3 Page 5

Where do you go for fresh and beau-tiful flower arrangements?

Page 14

MY PICKS

Our sports writer charts events in this year’s “Superleague”.

Page 13

SPORT

This week, we explore Vrsac on the Romanian border.

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OUT & ABOUT

Belgrade Insight takes a workout at Ada Ciganlija.

Page 10

LIFE

The IMF predicts a budget defecit in Serbia in 2009 of 50 billion dinars.

Page 4

BUSINESS

POLITICS

Obama’s victory was echoed in Ser-bia’s capital, where he was named the President of Belgrade, by US Ambassador Cameron Munter.

Page 6

ECONOMICS

BELGRADE

Source: www.weather2umbrella.com

By Aleksandar Vasovic

The potential purchase of 48 per cent of Mercator would create a Balkan retail behemoth.

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 20082 advert

3politicsFriday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Dacic: We Don’t Know Where War Criminals AreSerbia is doing its best to fully cooperate with the war crimes tribunal, but doesn’t know where the remaining fugitives are hiding, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic says

INTERVIEWby Julijana Mojsilovic

in Belgrade

Ivica Dacic says that the Serbian police, though not tasked with locating war crimes fugitives,

check all information that comes from the Prosecutor’s Office and se-curity services.

“There have been five to six such actions in the last several years, but either the information proves wrong or the people found were not [Ratko] Mladic or [Goran] Hadzic,” Dacic told Balkan Insight.

Mladic, wartime commander of the Bosnian Serbs and Hadzic, a Croatian Serb leader in the conflicts of the ear-ly 1990s, are the two remaining war crimes suspects that the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugo-slavia, ICTY, still seeks from Serbia.

Serbia’s further European integra-tion is conditional on the country be-ing deemed to have fully cooperated with the ICTY, which means the ar-rest and extradition of the duo.

“It is important that Serbia does everything to show it wishes to achieve full cooperation with The Hague”, Dacic, who became Interior Minister earlier this year, said. He was speaking ahead of a new visit to Belgrade by the tribunal’s Chief Prosecutor, Serge Brammertz.

The Interior Minister said the two fugitives were either not in Serbia or had been extremely careful in their communications, “so that not only our, but also foreign intelligence services, cannot locate them”.

Dacic, leader of the Socialist Par-ty that was once led by Slobodan Mi-losevic says Serbian intelligence had cooperated well with foreign agen-cies in locating war crimes fugitives and “the searches over the last few years were based on data provided by them [foreign intelligence]”. Howev-er, this data had proved incorrect and therefore did not lead to arrests.

Milosevic, himself indicted for war crimes in the 1990s, died in 2006 while on trial in The Hague. Only two years later, Dacic’s Socialists, firm opponents of the extradition of

Serbian Nationalists Create New Alliance

Three Serbian nationalist par-ties, including that of former Prime Minister Vojislav Ko-

stunica, have signed a new alliance aiming to challenge the current coali-tion government.

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), New Serbia (NS), and the new People’s Party (NP), signed a “Declaration on Joint Political Ac-tion” because “Serbia is tired of a government like this,” New Serbia’s leader Velimir Ilic said.

“We want to secure a better govern-ment that will offer people more secu-rity amid the crisis,” Kostunica said.

According to pollsters, all three parties are currently trailing below the 5 percent threshold of voters’ support which is required to enter parliament.

The DSS and NS currently hold 21 and 9 seats respectively in the

“From the moment the country starts to develop a feasibility study for such a power plant, until its actual de-velopment, we would need at least 12 years,” Skundric said.

After the 1986 disaster at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the then communist Yugosla-via adopted a moratorium on such developments. The former country then had only two reactors, the Krsko power plant in Slovenia and a smaller one, tailored for scientific use, in the Nuclear Sciences Institute at Vinca, just outside Belgrade.

As a successor of the former state, Serbia continued the moratorium after it formally adopted its new constitu-tion in 2006.

He warned that the Serbian public “must know that all of Europe is dotted with nuclear plants and that countries in the region are either building or have plans to develop such power plants.”

“The development and usage of a nuclear power plant mobilises major resources and boosts employment,” he said.

250-seat parliament.Kostunica’s cabinet collapsed in

March over disagreements between his loyalists and pro-Western ministers loyal to President Boris Tadic, over whether the government in Belgrade should sign a European Union pre-membership deal known as a Stabili-sation and Association Agreement.

Maja Gojkovic’s People’s Party was recently formed by disenchanted members of the Serbian Radical Par-ty, SRS, from Vojvodina.

“I can foresee early elections in 2009,” Gojkovic said and described Serbia’s ruling coalition as “feeble.”

The creation of the new alliance comes after Tomislav Nikolic, a na-tionalist, split from the Radicals and formed the Progressive Party, com-prised of other disenchanted Radi-cal Party members who opposed the policies of its leader Vojislav Seselj, currently on trial before the United Nations tribunal at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Belgrade-based analysts say that the move is aimed at solidifying Ser-bia’s political right and creating a foothold for an alliance with Nikolic in the future parliamentary elections slated for 2012.

No Serb Nuke Plant for ‘Another 15 Years’

Serbia will not develop a nuclear power plant for at least another decade, Petar Skundric, the

country’s Mining and Energy Minis-ter, says.

His remarks come amid a pro-tracted debate in Serbia’s scientific community over whether the country should build a nuclear power plant to reduce its dependence on imports of electricity, oil and gas.

In remarks carried by Belgrade’s B92 network, Skundric said that “no one should be afraid that Serbia will be developing a nuclear plant within next 15 years.”

war-crimes suspects, entered a gov-ernment coalition led by the Demo-crats, Milosevic’s arch political ene-mies and the driving force behind his ousting and arrest and his extradition to The Hague in 2001.

Dacic said the two parties had left the past behind them and were now fo-cused on Serbia’s future. They had re-cently strengthened the coalition, sign-ing a declaration on reconciliation.

“I didn’t want the responsibility of the Socialists being accused for the second time of having halted Ser-bia on its way to Europe, and all the troubles the country faced because of that,” Dacic said, referring to the decision to join the coalition with the pro-European Democrats, and the Milosevic era, when Serbia was un-der international sanctions.

“On the other hand, it’s a paradox that in 2008, the Socialists, by decid-ing to form this coalition, are leading Serbia towards the European Union, while [Vojislav] Kostunica, who beat Milosevic in the elections [in 2000], is now against it,” Dacic said.

In May 2008, the closely fought general election left the Socialists in the position of “king makers”. At first, Dacic negotiated with Kostuni-ca’s nationalist bloc, which included the hard-line Radicals. But in the end, Dacic formed a government with the Democrats.

He says the coalition is now “firm and will get more solid in future”, in-sisting that so far decisions had been reached by consensus in the cabinet. “Lessons from the past should, in a way, be directions for the future,” Dacic said, adding that his party’s election slogan, “Let’s Start from the Beginning”, had proved right.

His ministry has indeed made a fresh start by intensifying the anti-corruption struggle. After police detained 25 people on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, Dacic announced new arrests, warning that no one would be spared regardless of their position or party affiliation. “Corruption must be fought there, where people have power,” he said.

Dacic also said his ministry close-ly cooperated with Croatian police ahead of last month’s arrest of sev-

eral persons suspected of planting the car bomb that killed the publisher Ivo Pukanic and an associate in Zagreb.

Two of the men detained in the cross-border police dragnet, dubbed Balkan Express, are Serbian citizens and Dacic said his ministry’s infor-mation had led to the arrests.

He said the joint action had inflict-ed “a serious blow to the criminals on both sides of the border,” adding that the police now anticipated “a coun-

ter-strike and we are getting ready for it,” though he did not specify.

“Police should know no bounda-ries or political differences because the criminals don’t know them, ei-ther,” Dacic said, of the cooperation between the police of Serbia and Croatia, countries that fought each other in the 1990s.

The minister said a meeting would soon take place with his Croatian coun-terpart, Tomislav Karamarko, while

Serbia’s police have also reached bi-lateral agreements on cooperation with Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. An agreement with Italy will be signed next month. “Serbia’s police are now an important stabilising factor in the region and we are initiating ever better regional cooperation,” Dacic said.

Julijana Mojsilovic is a Balkan In-sight contributor. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.

No let up in hunt for Mladic and Hadzic, says Dacic Photo by Aleksandar Vasovic

Serbia in Brief

4 business Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Source: www.emportal.co.yuSerbian PM Mirko Cvetkovic

Deputy PM Krkobabic Source: seebiz.eu

The NIS Pancevo refinery

Revised 2008 Budget Approved

Serbia Seeks Deal with IMFIMF Predicts Budget Deficit in 2009

Serbia Wants to Delay NIS Sale

Serbia Courts Greek Investments

Central Bank Increases Benchmark Rate

The Serbian government wants to delay the sale of its Naftna Industrija Srbije,

NIS, to Russian oil and gas gi-ant OAO Gazprom until the end of 2009, amid uncertainties over how the buyer plans to provide the €500 million for the overhaul of the company, agreed as part of the deal, Serbian media reported.

Last year Serbia and Russia reached a tentative agreement under which Gazprom’s oil arm, Gazprom-neft, will purchase a 51 per cent stake in NIS for €400 million and invest a additional €500 million by 2012.

The Serbian negotiators have re-portedly asked their Russian counter-parts to extend the current November 22 deadline for signing the deal, as it remains unclear whether Gazprom-neft will fund the investments through

Serbia’s government is looking to conclude a key deal with the International Monetary Fund,

the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said.

The deal Serbia is seeking with the IMF, a Precautionary arrange-ment, serves to boost international confidence in a member’s macro-economic policies.

“Entering that programme would be the best recommendation for in-vestments in Serbia. That is in our best interests and we are not asking the IMF for loans,” Djelic told state state-run RTS Television.

Djelic said Serbia “will sign the deal by the end of the week.”

“The problem is that Serbia’s spending is 20 per cent higher than its production and the IMF has already warned us about that,” Djelic said.

Djelic offered no precise details about the precautionary deal Serbia will sign.

Serbia’s parliament approved a revised 2008 budget, tailored to increase financing of a joint

investment deal, development of in-frastructure and boost pensions.

Under the provisions of the re-vised budget, the projected deficit was increased by 45.8 billion dinars (€538.8 million), with planned ex-penditure of 696 billion dinars and projected revenues of 650.17 billion dinars, leaving a deficit of 1.7 per cent of GDP, a statement said.

The Parliament’s decision will become effective as soon as it is published in the official gazette, the statement said.

During the debate, Finance Minis-ter Diana Dragutinovic told deputies that the reshuffle of the budget was prompted by the government’s deci-sion to allot €200 million to finance

the joint venture between the Zastava carmaker and Italy’s Fiat, another €250 million for the development of the Corridor 10 highway network and a 10 per cent increase in pensions.

The previous government, led by Vojislav Kostunica, had forecast a shortfall of 0.5 per cent of GDP.

Serbia’s government previously said that GDP growth in 2008 would be 7 per cent while headline inflation would reach 9.5 per cent. Serbia’s current account defecit in 2008 is forcast at 18.3 per cent of GDP.

In past weeks, top Serbian officials have repeatedly said they were hop-ing that the country would attract as much as €2 billion in foreign invest-ments next year. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development also said it plans to invest €250 mil-lion in Serbia in 2009.

would reduce the funds available for investment and increase the budget deficit.” Krkobabic re-cently announced that the planned pensions increase is likely to be postponed until 2010.

At the meeting with the IMF team, he said that funds for the increase of pensions “can be se-cured through reductions in the public-sector workforce, better organised fiscal revenues and an

end to the so-called grey econo-my and corruption.”

Serbia currently has 1.63 mil-lion pensioners with an average pension in September of 17,311 dinars (€211).

The National Bank of Serbia increased its benchmark in-terest rate by 2 percentage

points on Friday, setting it at 17.75 per cent, a move aimed at bolster-ing the domestic currency which has flagged of late under pressure from the turmoil in international markets.

Since December 2007, the central bank has increased the rate seven times.

“With this move, policymakers apparently intend to increase margins between interest rates in Serbia and abroad with the aim of bolstering the dinar and bringing back investors,” Goran Nikolic of Serbia’s Chamber of Commerce said.

The dinar recovered slightly against the euro after the central bank sold €80 million to boost trading in the currency market.

Having lost almost 10 per cent

of its value in October, the dinar re-covered slightly before falling away again. A further sale of an additional €30 million on Wednesday failed to halt the decline and the dinar ended Thursday at 86.71 to the euro.

The decline of Serbia’s national currency comes as international in-vestors, wary of the effects of the global crisis on developing mar-kets, pull out their assets from the local market.

Serbia will offer incentives to foreign investors including low taxes and subsidies, with the

aim of boosting the flagging econo-my, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said recently.

“To achieve 4 per cent growth in 2009, Serbia needs foreign direct in-vestment. That’s the key,” Cvetkovic said at a business conference with a Greek delegation in the country’s capital.

He said that the government was ready to offer subsidies and other in-centives to foreign investors includ-ing a “low, 10 per cent tax on profits and 12 per cent income tax.”

Since 2001, Greece has invested

as much as €2.2 billion in Serbia and is the second-largest investor after Austria. A total of 300 Greek compa-nies are currently present in Serbia, mainly in the fields of energy, tel-ecommunications and banking.

In 2007, Serbia had a trade defi-cit with Greece of as much as €205 million.

Cvetkovic said that one of Ser-bia’s economic priorities in 2009 will be the development of a motorway network dubbed Corridor 10 that will link the country with its neighbours.

Greece has already allotted €100 million from its Hellenic Plan invest-ment programme for the develop-ment of the Corridor 10 stretch be-

tween the southern town of Leskovac and the Presevo border crossing with Macedonia.

Economy Minister Mladjan Dink-ic announced at the same conference that Serbia will also initiate talks on free trade with Belarus and Ukraine “as soon as the volatile political situ-ation” in the latter former Soviet re-public is stabilised.

“That will make Serbia even more attractive for Greek investors,” he said.

He said that “Corridor 10 will give an additional boost” to Greece’s Aegean port of Thessaloniki “which will become an important point for European exports to Asia.”

a cash payment or a loan. Reports also said that the Russian

side preferred that NIS take out a €500 million loan which would be procured with Gazprom’s guarantees.

In July, the Serbian government said it wanted to renegotiate the sale of NIS, arguing the proposed price did not adequately value the com-pany. In August, Deloitte & Touche valued Naftna Industrija Srbije at €2.2 billion.

In his September visit to Belgrade, Sergey Shoigu, Russia’s minister for emergency situations and the key ne-gotiator in the purchase of NIS, flatly rejected Serbia’s proposal.

In the report, Politika also said that the Serbian negotiating team wanted to use the additional time to include HIP Petrohemija, a petrochemicals producer, as part of a wider deal. The

Serbia’s 2009 budget deficit is forecast to be 50 billion dinars (€588 million), an In-

ternational Monetary Fund delega-tion said.

During a meeting with the coun-try’s Deputy Prime Minister Jo-van Krkobabic, an IMF delegation warned that “the 2009 budget has been drafted in an unfavorable eco-nomic climate, and amid the global crisis we forecast a deficit of 50 billion dinars,” the Serbian govern-ment’s Information Bureau said in a statement.

IMF experts led by Albert Jaeger warned Krkobabic that industrial growth would be 3.5 per cent with inflation at around 8 per cent.

The team arrived in Belgrade last week to help Serbian economists draft the 2009 budget.

The IMF delegation “also said that an increase of pensions up to 70 per cent of an average wage

Serbian government owns a 51 per cent stake in HIP Petrohemija.

The BELEX15, the index of the most traded shares in the Belgrade Stock Exchange, recovered 3.49 percent between October 31 and November 6 from its historical low of 668.99 points on October 30.

On Thursday, Nov 6, the BELEX15 fell by 0.76 percent to 692,32 points from 697,59 points the day before.

The BELEXline composite in-dex which had recorded a tiny re-covery of combined 0.2 percent since October 31, also dropped

0.87 percent by the end of trading on November 6. Dealers said that the market had “dropped so much

percent between January and Octo-ber that this brief recovery practi-cally meaningless.”

Belgrade Stock Market Recovers After Dropping to an All Time Low

Not only is Serbia techno-logically dependant on the West, but in the 1990s it

also lost the most qualified ele-ment of its workforce, which would have helped the country survive the crisis, says Miodrag Zecevic, executive director of marketing at Energoprojekt. One of the country’s largest construction businesses, En-ergoprojekt has been active across the world since the early 1950’s and is one of Serbia’s most internation-alised companies with operations in over 20 countries worldwide. An-drej Klemencic spoke with Zecevic in his New Belgrade office.

Q: You have observed Serbia’s economy both from home and abroad. How does it look?

A: Adaptable is the best descrip-tion. The ability to quickly respond to change is something we acquired during the recent turbulent times. Serbia is now strongly committed to the European Union and this is a clear sign to foreign investors that it has accepted Western standards.

In contrast, transition is taking an unpardonably long time. Another

difficult issue is the absence of a regulatory body to deal with cartels and monopolies. Most importantly, the level of corruption in Serbia is alarming. EU studies warn us of this constantly, saying Serbia is doing little or nothing to prevent this and change the mentality of believing corruption is the only way of con-ducting business.

Q: Many believe the fact that the Serbian economy has been rela-tively isolated means the recession will not hit the country as hard as some Western economies.

A: It is not serious to claim the crisis will not hit Serbia. To under-stand why, we need to go back to the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. That was the beginning of the de-industrialisation of the West. Indus-try moved east, as human resources moved west. The West is now in the East, beyond the Urals, where much Western manufacturing now lies. And we are closer to the West in more ways than we are aware of. For example, despite Serbia’s con-nections to Russia, we never adopted their GOST industrial standard, but have kept the German one, DIN.

Our comparative advantage used to be a skilled workforce that applied Western standards in building mas-sive infrastructural projects in Non-Aligned countries. Our biggest com-parative disadvantage now is a lack of that very workforce. This hap-pened because circumstances lead us to advertise cheap labour as the key advantage of our market. Because

of that, our most skilled engineers moved to the West, and Serbia’s po-sition in the crisis is weakened by this fact.

Q: Is there a chance for Serbia to re-position itself?

A: Russia is often mentioned as a power that Serbia can turn to in case of crisis, and as an alternative to the EU. This could not be further from the truth. With my knowledge of circumstances in Russia, where I helped position Energoprojekt in the 1990s, I can say they see us as their strong lobbyist inside the EU and not as an opponent to the values of the European Union. It is true we have deep connections with Russia, but that does not change the fact we are a European country and those connec-tions will provide no shelter from the effects of the global crisis.

Q: As a ‘crisis expert’, what comes next?

A: I need to take us back to the Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire, where the Allies met in 1944 to make the US dollar the glo-bal reserve currency. What that meant was that the Neo-liberal foundations of the US economy became the glo-bal doctrine.

This advocated the currency, rath-er than the state, as the main regula-tory force within the economy. How-ever, the sub-prime mortgage crisis has revealed that this self-regulatory system is flawed. The people have lost their trust in Neo-liberalism and

with it, the US dollar too. Once that trust is lost, it is difficult, often im-possible, to regain it.

Q: Is there an escape scenario?

A: Since the dollar was the chief agent of globalisation, we may now ex-pect an era of “localisation”. Countries, mainly Western ones, which the reces-sion is hitting hardest, are re-introduc-ing state ownership of banks in order to soften the blow of the recession. This presents an opportunity for the

economies of Latin America, Russia, India and China to assert themselves as major players on a global scale. The US economy will remain a strong, in-dependent entity, but its strength will depend on its capacity to recover from this difficult time. So, we may see that rather than turning to a global market, smaller countries may turn towards one of those emerging giants.

Andrej Klemencic is a communica-tions consultant and a contributor for Belgrade Insight.

5business 5business

Serbia Seeks Partner for RTB Bor Copper Mine

Serbia will start looking for a stra-tegic partner for the RTB Bor Copper Mine and Smelter, a top Economy Ministry official said.

“We will launch the tender by Saturday, November 8,” said Nebo-jsa Ciric, a State Secretary with the Economy Ministry.

Ciric said that the strategic part-ner for the troubled copper mine “should facilitate the conditions for the company’s development and in-vestment. It will also be required to craft a solution for RTB Bor’s social problems,”

Serbia’s previous plans to sell RTB Bor, the largest copper mine in the former Yugoslavia and the West-ern Balkans, to Romania’s Cuprom and Austria’s A-Tec Industries AG, fell through in 2007 after the buyers failed to pay the agreed price.

Ciric said that Serbia will enter a joint venture with a strategic partner, and that the strategic partner would be the majority owner.

“The state will keep veto rights on important decisions such as bank-ruptcy and relocation of the compa-ny,” Ciric said.

Ealrier, Serbian media reported that Switzerland’s Glencore Inter-natational AG, A-Tec Industries AG and Cyprus-based East Point had ex-pressed an interest in the deal.

NIN Weekly Up for Sale

Serbia’s Privatisation Agency an-nounced it is inviting bidders to take a 70 per cent stake in Belgrade’s weekly NIN.

The agency stopped short from setting a price for the weekly and only said that prospective bidders must have been involved in news-paper or magazine publishing for at least a decade.

They are also required to have at least €30 million in 2007 revenues. The deadline for placing a bid was set at December 12.

The NIN weekly is 87 per cent owned by the state, while the daily newspaper Politika has a 10 per cent holding. The remaining 3 per cent belongs to employees.

Germany’s Metro to Invest More in Serbia

German retailer Metro has in-vested €100 million in Serbia since it started business in the country in 2004 and wants to expand further, a statement said.

Metro said it has so far opened five hypermarkets in Serbia, two in the capital Belgrade, and another three in the cities of Kragujevac in central Serbia, the city of Novi Sad, which is the capital of the northern province of Vojvodina and the south-ern city of Nis.

The company announced it will expand its Serbian network, but stopped short of giving more details.

Metro Cash & Carry is an inter-national wholesaler operating across Europe, Asia and Northern Africa.

Although technically positioned as a wholesale operation, serving independent retailers and caterers, Metro competes head-on in many markets with international discount retailers.

Belgrade’s Airport Expects Strong Profits

Belgrade’s state-operated Nikola Tesla airport expects its net profit to quadruple in 2008, local media re-port.

Citing the company’s director Bojan Kristo, reports said the airport expects profits of some €18 million by the year’s end as opposed to €4.5

million in 2007.Kristo said that the rise in profits is

the result of increased traffic and job cuts. The Nikola Tesla airport has two terminals and an annual capacity for handling some 5 million passengers.

In 2007, the Serbian government said it would privatise some of its key assets, including the Nikola Tesla airport, through initial public offers. However, this and many other planned privatisations appear to have been delayed due to the global finan-cial crisis.

One Bid Placed for Serbia’s Hotel Complex

The Privatisation agency has an-nounced that a single bidder has of-fered to purchase the Internacional

CG hotel complex at the Kopaonik ski resort in Serbia’s southwest.

In a statement, the agency said that a consortium comprised of Serbia’s MK Group and Austria’s Falkensteiner-Michaeler has quali-fied for the offer.

In July, the agency launched its second attempt to sell the Kopaonik complex, 220 kilometres south of Belgrade. The asking price for the ho-tel was €23 million, nearly 50 per cent lower than the original asking price.

The bid included the Grand Hotel Suncani Vrhovi, the apartment com-plex Konaci, a restaurant and flats.

Internacional CG complex was previously owned by the now bank-rupt Genex, a former top exporter and tour operator in the former Yu-goslavia.

Companies & Markets

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Serbia Will Not Escape the World Recession The country’s banking system may not be as affected by events across the world as many others, but Serbia will not be immune to the effects of an international downturn. The perceived failure of US style neo-liberal economics may hasten the continued emergence of Russia, China, India and Latin America as economic giants.

INTERVIEWby Andrej Klemencic

Energoprojekt’s Miodrag Zecevic Photo by Andrej Klemencic

Serbia Seeks Deal with IMF

Belex 15 - week to 6 Nov.

Obama Wins in BelgradeAs a nearly two-year-long campaign wound down, America overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama, and so did Belgrade.

By Vanja Petrovicin Belgrade

In a vote held at the Media Cen-tre’s American Election Night, Barack Obama was overwhelm-

ingly elected President of the USA, mirroring events back in the States. The 313 to 43 result in favour of Obama was as emphatic as the ex-pected 349 – 162 winning margin in Electoral College votes and was just as enthusiastically received.

The event brought together jour-nalists, US expats and politicians to chew over the campaigns, sink a few beers and cheer in the results as they arrived. Amongst the local dig-natories who attended were Crown Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, Governor Radovan Jelasic, Minis-ter of Finance Dijana Dragutinovic, LSV leader Nenad Canak and DS member Dragoljub Micunovic.

There’s always a suggestion that journalists are just as inter-ested in the free beer as the story, and the huddle of correspondents crowded in the smoking corner with a screen playing Fox News in the background, didn’t seem to spend much time pondering the election. For them, it was a time to chew over journalistic nostalgia from the 1990s.

They spoke about hyperinflation in 1993, Slobodan Milosevic and ri-ots in almost romantic terms. “But that was when we were young” said one prominent journalist who asked to remain anonymous.

“At the bureau, we used to re-ceive astronomical phone bills with the morning post, but inflation would eat them by noon,” said Djor-dje Vlajic, a Belgrade-based BBC correspondent, of his experience during hyperinflation.

The expats, however, spent the night in a different mood, eagerly anticipating the results.

“I’ve been watching the cam-paign for two years now, and I think

the world is ready for America to have different representation,” said Jamie Van Drunen, a teacher at the International School of Belgrade. “There’s no question the campaign has smoothed over a lot of awkward conversations I’ve had when meeting people, and Serbians in particular. It’s almost like, the minute I say I’m for Obama, I’m accepted,” she added.

Her husband, Ethan, was dressed as Uncle Sam, and boasting both Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin buttons, as he mingled in the crowd talking about democracy.

Another teacher and expat, Bill Kralovec, echoed Jamie Van Drunen’s sentiment that Obama smooths over a lot of conversations, and said he uses the future Ameri-can president as an example to his students.

“I use Obama as a lesson to my students. I tell them that he’s not of

the same ethnic origin as me, but I’m voting for him based on his views. I believe that this is a good lesson for the Balkans.”

“This is the first time I’ve been excited about politics, and I think all the Serbs love Obama,” he added.

Following the Media Centre vote, The US Ambassador to Ser-bia, Cameron Munter, pronounced Obama the President of Belgrade.

“Obama became the president of Belgrade tonight. I apologize to the Mayor of Belgrade, Dragan Djilas, but Belgrade is, as always, an ex-ample to follow,” said Munter jok-ingly.

Munter said that the turnout at the Media Centre had confirmed that interest in American politics is huge.

“This has only reminded us of the enormous responsibility we have in the world,” added Munter.

6 belgrade chronicle Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

The Obamas and the Bidens celebrate an historic victory

Ethan Van Drunen appears confused!

Photo by FoNet

Photo by FoNet

Photo by FoNetPhoto by FoNetPhoto by FoNetRiza Halimi US Ambasador Munter and Foreign Minister Jeremic Dragoljub Micunovic

Europe Ponders New Strategy for Ailing BosniaAfter two years of political impasse in Bosnia, the EU is preparing to strengthen its engagement and take sole charge of the international community’s presence there.

7neighbourhood

By Tim Judah in London

For months, alarms bells have been ringing for Bosnia and Herzegovina as the struggle

between Haris Silajdzic and Milo-rad Dodik, the leading Bosniak and Serb politicians, brings reform and progress grinding to a halt.

Indeed, progress in Bosnia has been on hold for some two years, during which period the authority of the Of-fice of the High Representative, OHR, representing the international commu-nity, has been seriously undermined.

The international community, distracted by Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan and the global financial meltdown, has allowed Bosnia to fall low on the agenda. Now, concerned that progress in the country has not just halted but gone into reverse, EU foreign ministers on Monday Novem-ber 11 will consider, and most likely endorse, a new strategy prepared by Olli Rehn, the enlargement commis-sioner, and Javier Solana, in charge of EU foreign affairs.

Their report contains strong lan-guage. The political situation in Bosnia has deteriorated, it says, and while the vast majority of Bosnians support EU membership, their lead-ers are “mired in the nationalist logic and talk of the past”. The EU has an interest in promoting change in Bos-nia because it is a potential candidate for membership, and “a stronger en-gagement of the EU is today more es-sential than ever before”.

The report argues that the “status quo is unviable and likely to remain so until and unless the international com-munity is prepared to change the pa-rameters of its presence and approach.

“The international impetus re-mains essential, since there are no domestic forces capable of challeng-ing the status quo and influencing the

Tirana _ Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha held a two-hour long marathon speech in parliament in a hearing over his ties to Bosnian busi-nessman, Damir Fazlic.

Although Berisha spoke for two hours on what he called “the historic achievements of his government,” he did not once discuss his ties to Fazlic or the related accusation of favourit-ism or money laundering.

After making a resume of his government’s achievements that in-cluded the independence of Kosovo, the Albanian premier noted that his reform programme had the support of United States President George W. Bush.

Berisha accused the opposition of ties to organised crime and of launching the parliamentary hearing because they were jealous.

According to Berisha, his government had made histori-cal improvements to the country’s economy, had changed its image as a hotbed of organised crime, had achieved record results in the war against corruption, improved edu-

deals with Fazlic, by allowing him to sell one of his companies for €1.75 million, without paying €520,000 in VAT and income tax.

Experts warn that when a com-pany is sold for large sums of money, without holding any tangible assets, it raises a red flag for a money laun-dering operation.

Fazlic has denied this accusation. Both Basha and Berisha have also denied the accusations.

Berisha has also previously re-jected opposition accusations and in turn threatened to open the “crime archives” of the opposition.

“My family does not have any business with Mr Fazlic,” Basha said, adding that the accusations were a “hysterical campaign.”

Prosecutor-General Under Pressure

Berisha, has come under strong US and European Union criticism over al-leged attempts to put pressure on the Prosecutor General, Ina Rama, who has been investigating corruption.

Rama has launched probes into the March 15 blast at an Albanian army depot and into corruption in the con-struction of the new Albania - Kosovo highway, which have put her at odds with the centre-right government.

Meanwhile, as well as voicing support for the fight against corrup-tion, Berisha is seeking to draft a new law that regulates the office of the prosecutor general.

The law would strip prosecutors of the right to be protected from po-lice arrest without a formal indict-ment and limit their independence, by allowing the Ministry of Justice to oversee investigations.

The bill has come under criticism from interest groups, the opposition and the US government, because it limits the independence of the pros-ecutor general, which is guaranteed by the Albanian constitution.

On Saturday in a joint declara-tion, the association of prosecutors, judges, lawyers and public notaries condemned the bill.

New evidence published in the local media has suggested that the

current Minister of Justice, Enkelej Alibeaj, and former Minister Aldo Bumci, a deputy of the Democratic Party of Prime Minister Berisha, have been involved in the legal proc-ess that paved the way for the demo-lition process that led to the March 15 blast.

Both deny any allegations of wrongdoing and claim they were just doing their job.

cation, tax collection, and lowered government expenditure.

The premier also challenged the opposition to put a motion for a vote of no confidence against him, point-ing out that they did not have the votes to overthrow him.

“You don’t have the hormones to take such action,” he said,

The probe into the business activ-ities of the Bosnian businessman has uncovered an intricate web, involv-ing the family of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha.

Prosecutors are looking at a series of transactions relating to the sale of one of Fazlic’s businesses, Crown Acquisitions. This was sold in June 2007 to a Cyprus-based company, Altaria Research Limited, for €1.75 million. However, according to the prosecutor’s office, as it held no as-sets, it raised suspicions.

Fazlic worked as a consultant for a US-based company, BG & R, which designed Berisha’s Democratic Party electoral campaign. The Albanian opposition has charged that Berisha and Basha were involved in shady

country’s leadership to replace their current disputes with a genuine con-sensus on EU-related reforms.”

The document proposes a seven-point strategy, which, as it points out, is an updated version of a plan from 2006. What it proposes is that the EU be ready to take over from the OHR by mid-2009.

Originally, it was foreseen that the OHR would close in 2007 and the leading international role in the country be handed to a European Un-ion Special Representative, EUSR.

At present, the High Representa-tive is also the EUSR, although in the past the former role has had more importance, owing to the extensive “Bonn Powers”, empowering the High Representative to sack recal-citrant politicians and be involved at virtually all levels of political life.

However, the current High Rep-resentative and EUSR, Miroslav Lajcak, has experienced a loss of authority since he took over in 2007, mainly owing to the failure of foreign capitals to support him.

The Rehn-Solana report argues that the EU now needs to “maximise its political leverage in the country” and become fully re-engaged. To do so, it foresees the closure of the OHR and a new UN resolution transfer-ring residual OHR authorities to the EUSR. Non-EU countries will be engaged by having them work on the EUSR team. The elements of Bos-nia’s EU Stabilisation and Associa-tion Agreement, SAA, are to be used as “drivers for reform”.

An SAA is seen as the first step towards EU membership but Bosnian leaders are widely regarded as having paid only lip service to the document, signed in June. Brussels suspects lo-cal leaders are far from committed to implementing the reforms that the SAA demands.

The final points of the document are a communication strategy to ex-

plain the transition in Bosnia and a demand for clarity on the question of stalled constitutional reforms. The EU should not “insist on a particular constitutional blue-print,” it says, adding that it is “essential… to ensure a functional and efficient state, capa-ble of delivering on BiH’s obligations in the EU accession process”.

The Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, has long sought the closure of the OHR, and is backed by Russia in this. However, diplomatic sources say Russia has indicated that it is not looking for a conflict with Europe over Bosnia. Even if this is true, however, the risk remains that any future EU move to break the impasse in Bosnia may be stymied by a lack of consensus with Washington.

One reason for this is the election of the Democrat Barrack Obama as the next US President. This means that policy-makers and diplomats such as Richard Holbrooke who were heavily involved in the Balkans un-der Bill Clinton may well shape fu-ture US policy on the Balkans.

Mr Holbrooke, the US diplomat who clinched the deal to end the Bos-nian war in 1995, may regard the EU plan as lacking in muscle. The Ameri-cans may well point to the extremely slow deployment of the EU’s flagship EULEX police and justice mission in Kosovo as a poor precedent. For now, EULEX cannot even function in the Serb-run northern tip of Kosovo.

For the moment, the closure of the OHR is not officially on the agenda, as the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council, which over-sees the 1995 Dayton accords, in Feb-ruary set various conditions for clo-sure that have not yet been fulfilled.

However, the Rehn-Solana paper argues that the EU needs to be pre-pared, because if the OHR is still around in 2010, when the next elec-tions are scheduled in Bosnia, the international community’s presence “could once again become a central campaign theme…[and] the reform agenda, EU membership, and the authorities’ track record on delivery would suffer as result”.

Whether or not OHR will really be closed by the middle of next year is an open question, but what seems certain is that now both Kosovo and Serbia appear stable, attention is shifting back to Bosnia.

Meanwhile, according to informed sources, diplomats in Bosnia may de-cide to use some of the information they have obtained on corruption in high places to help break the political stalemate.

Referring to certain key politi-cians, one diplomat told Balkan Insight that the strategy would be to “isolate” these figures from “their own electorate” and to show some of their close collaborators that “they were a burden and ob-stacle to them and so make them disloyal”.

Tim Judah, a leading Balkan com-mentator, is the author of “Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know”, published by Oxford University Press. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s on-line publication.

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Albania PM Avoids Questions in Parliament with Record Two Hour Filibuster

Albanian PM Sali Berisha

Milorad Dodik, PM of Republika Srpska Haris Silajdzic, member of the Bosnian presidency

8 neighbourhood

UK Foreign Minister Hopeful for Kosovo Police Caught in Blame GamePristina _ The British Foreign Secre-tary David Miliband says Kosovo is becoming a better place for all living there and pledged strong commit-ment to the EU’s new law-and-order mission, EULEX.

“Your Constitution clearly states that all communities should live to-gether in the newest country. The fact that your Parliament is home to depu-ties other than Albanians is an indica-tion of this fact,” said Miliband in an address to Kosovo’s Parliament.

While Miliband acknowledged that Kosovo faces great responsi-bilities and challenges in building its future, he revealed Kosovo is not alone.

“You are not alone. The interna-tional community is here to help you. EULEX will be functional all over Kosovo in order to build a good future for Kosovo’s citizens,” he pledged.

Serbia argues that both EULEX and the outgoing United Nations mission’s ‘reconfiguration’ (the term used to de-scribe the UN’s preparations to leave Kosovo and make way for EULEX) contravenes international law since under the UN Security Council Reso-lution 1244, passed in 1999 at the end of the conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian major-

Zagreb _ Croatian police and their col-leagues from Bosnia’s Serb-dominat-ed entity are trading accusations over who’s to blame for the narrow escape of a key suspect wanted over the mur-der of a high-profile journalist.

The suspect, identified as Zeljko Milovanovic, narrowly escaped an arrest operation carried out by the police on Friday evening near the northern Bosnian town of Doboj, police officials from Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srp-ska said.

Croatian police believe Mi-lovanovic is a key suspect in the car bombing which killed Croatian newspaper editor Ivo Pukanic and his marketing chief, Niko Franjic, on October 23.

Police in Croatia have already charged five people in connection with the car bombing.

However, their Republika Srpska counterparts have been accused of shielding criminals amid allegations that someone from the Doboj police force warned Milovanovic about his imminent arrest and allowed him to make a quick escape.

Momir Dejanovic, the President of Republika Srpska-based non-gov-ernmental organisation, the Centre

ity, only the UN can administer Kos-ovo on Serbia’s behalf.

The UN has administered Kosovo since 1999.To meet Belgrade’s complaints, EULEX may have to operate under a UN umbrella in the north and assume a “neutral” stance towards Kosovo’s independence.

Meanwhile, Miliband advised Kosovo to cooperate with the Inter-national Monetary Fund and to con-solidate its budget, which he said will bring economic development.

“The rule of law and the fight against the corruption will enhance foreign in-

vestment in your country,” he argued.“This is your state. You have to

work for it and there is no alterna-tive way of governing Kosovo,” said Miliband.

Talking about the recognitions of Kosovo’s independence, Miliband claimed Kosovo’s foreign policy should follow European values.

“You have to build bridges of communication with your neigh-bours, including Serbia,” he urged.

Kosovo’s parliamentary speaker, Jakup Krasniqi, thanked Miliband for his speech and his contribution to state-building in Kosovo.

for Humane Politics, claimed police in the entity “have been lying for years about their achievements, pro-tecting the interests of criminals, pil-ing up unsolved murders, routinely issuing false documents…and pro-tecting murderers and other danger-ous criminals wanted by the interna-tional police.”

But Darko Ilic from the special prosecutor’s office of Republika Srp-ska blamed Croatia’s media for nam-ing Milovanovic as a suspect prior to his arrest, saying it was this that al-lowed him to make his getaway.

Croatia’s journalists “published information on Milovanovic before arrangements had been made for his arrest,” argued Ilic.

However, Croatia’s police spokes-man Krunoslav Borovec rebuffed these accusations on Croatian Radio.

“Croatian police informed their Bosnian colleagues about the case much earlier than Milovanovic’s identity was published by Croatian journalists,” Borovec insisted.

Meanwhile, Croatian police say they have launched joint patrols with police from Bosnia and Herzegovina and these patrols will be allowed to search areas ten kilometres deep in-side each other’s countries.

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Olli Rehn

Miliband during his Kosovo visit Source: Prishtina Insight

Montenegrin PM, Milo Djukanovic

Podgorica _ It’s up to Serbia to de-cide on what kind of relations it wants with Montenegro, since Belgrade no longer matters to Podgorica, Mon-tenegro’s Prime Minister says.

Milo Djukanovic said the ball was in Serbia’s court. He argued Belgrade “is responsible for souring relations between the two countries.”

“We are in no rush,” Djukanovic said, adding that Belgrade “is no longer an address that matters to Montenegro.”

He said that it was important, but

Brussels_In an annual report on applicant countries, Croatia got the most positive evalua-

tion from the European Union.“Based on the progress made by

Croatia, it should be possible to reach the final stage of the accession nego-tiations by the end of 2009, provided that the country fulfils all the neces-sary conditions,” the bloc’s Enlarge-ment Commissioner, Olli Rehn, said.

Our sources confirmed that members in the bloc struggled over this line.

European Commission officials who were against Croatia’s accession argued that no country can be prom-ised full membership before the EU settles its own institutional matters and agrees to a treaty which can al-low for further enlargement.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, in June, that the European Un-ion could not accept new members, including Croatia, before adopting the Lisbon Treaty, aimed at over-

hauling institutions and simplifying decision-making.

But sources told Balkan Insight that “members of the European Commission”, including Commis-sion President Jose Manuel Barros-so, were insisting that Croatia could conclude the accession talks, a line which was later adopted.

Nevertheless, Croatia was asked to work hard to tackle corruption and organised crime, the commis-sion says, noting recent high-profile killings such as a the car bombing in Zagreb, which killed a prominent journalist.

Macedonia

Macedonia’s hope to get a date for the start of accession talks after three years of waiting were dashed after the final version of the report did not recommend any progress in Skopje’s membership bid.

Rehn admitted that Macedonia has made good progress on judicial and police reforms and continued to con-solidate multi-ethnic democracy by

implementing the Ohrid Agreement.“However, these good results are

overshadowed by shortcomings in the political arena, which are funda-mental to the start of accession nego-tiations,” he added.

Albania and Montenegro

Albania and Montenegro both received more positive evaluations compared to previous years.

The progress report stresses that both countries are implementing a key pre-membership deal known as a Stabilisation and Association Agreement.

However, both countries need to put more effort into strengthening their administrative capacities.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is de-scribed in light of the heated nation-alist political rhetoric, which has been prevalent among local politi-cians over the last year.

The Enlargement Commissioner

said that although the country started talks on visa-free access to the bloc and signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, “this has not prevented a deterioration of the political situation in the country in recent months.”

“The challenge for Bosnia’s lead-ers today is to achieve the degree of political consensus that has delivered progress on EU integration elsewhere in the region,” Rehn said.

Kosovo

Kosovo had by far the most nega-tive evaluation of its achievements during the year but the European Commission promises that a feasi-bility study on Kosovo will be pub-lished in autumn 2009 detailing its progress towards the EU “as part of the Western Balkans.”

“Kosovo will remain a focal point in 2009,” Rehn pledged.

Gjeraqina Tuhina is Brussels cor-respondent for Kosovo`s public TV, RTK. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s on-line publication.

not the most important, adding that Podgorica “will not beg” Belgrade to change its stance towards Montene-gro.

“By expelling the Montenegrin ambassador Anka Vojvodic, Bel-grade is responsible for souring re-lations between the two countries,” Djukanovic told Radio Montenegro.

The move came after Montene-gro recognised Kosovo’s February 17 declaration of independence from Serbia.

The Montenegrin Prime Minister

said his country had recognised Pris-tina’s move because “Montenegro can no longer shut its eyes to real-ity.”

Djukanovic said Montenegro “took no joy in the troubles of its neighbours,” but could not be ex-pected to ignore its own national in-terests.

Montenegro has traditionally been a close ally of Serbia, and the two were in a loose union until 2006, when Montenegro voted in a referen-dum to become independent.

A large proportion of Montenegrin citizens, about a third of the popula-tion, declare themselves as Serbs, while ethnic Albanians also make up a sizeable minority in the coastal re-public and Montenegro’s recognition of Kosovo, sparked riots in Podgori-ca in October.

Earlier, Svetozar Marovic, Mon-tenegro’s ruling party vice-president, said neither Montenegro nor Serbia should close the door on their Euro-pean future because of the Kosovo dispute.

Serbia ‘No Longer Matters to Montenegro’

Croatia on Track, Others Lag Behind, Says EUThe European Commission says Croatia is on track to wrap up EU accession talks next year and could join by 2011, however other

countries have a lot more work to do.

By Gjeraqina Tuhina in Brussels

9out & about

St. Gerhard’s spires, reaching heavenward

Vrsac has many lovely facades

Photo by Pat Andjelkovic Photo by Pat Andjelkovic

Photo by Pat Andjelkovic

One of Vrsac’s renowned white wines

Vineyards and Eastern Promise By Pat Andjelkovic

The upside of global warm-ing is that November’s cold weather may not hit us for a

while, which means you’ll still have a pleasant weekend or two to take a short trip to Vrsac, one of the oldest towns of the Banat region, about 85 kilometres northeast of Belgrade.

Vrsac is situated on the edge of the Panonnian plain, an ancient seabed, at the foot of the Vrsac mountains, 14 kilometres from the Romanian bor-der. It is well connected by highway, rail, and bus. The town has only about 40,000 inhabitants, and is primarily flat, making walking around quite

Gather herbs, drink wines, go fishing, and then enjoy your stroll round this ancient border town, close to Romania.

easy. However, the name derives from the Slavic word “vrh,” meaning “summit,” since a medieval fortress stood on the hill, which is 399 metres high, overlooking the town. All that remains is the tower, Vrsacka kula, which dates back to the mid-15th century. You can drive up to the tower and enjoy a fine view of the town be-low, especially lovely at sunset.

Vrsac has had a turbulent his-tory since its foundations around 500 BC. Later, the region belonged to the Huns, Avars and Bulgarians. Serbs settled in the region in the 6th century, and some time after, the town became part of the Hungary. The Ottomans destroyed it in the early 16th century, but it was soon rebuilt. In 1594, the Serbs in the Vrsac region launched an uprising

against Ottoman rule and in 1716 it passed from Ottoman to Hapsburg control, and the Muslim population fled, leaving Vrsac mostly populated by Serbs. Soon, the Hapsburgs set-tled German colonists there. Good relations between the Serbs and Germans were interrupted by the revolution in 1848, when the Serbs fought on the side of the Hapsburg Emperor, while the Germans sided with the Emperor’s Hungarian op-ponents. In 1918, after the Hapsburg Empire collapsed, the region be-came part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia.

Following Yugoslavia’s break-up, the town has been part of Serbia. But a strong Romanian community remains in Vrsac, with its own thea-

tre, schools and museum. Romanian-language instruction takes place at a kindergarten, an elementary school, a high school and a teachers’ univer-sity. The cultural organization CRS and the folklore group Pentru Albu hold many cultural events in Vrsac and in nearby Romanian-populated villages. In 2005, Romania opened a consulate in Vrsac.

The town is known for several in-dustries, especially pharmaceuticals (Hemofarm), confectionery, and tex-tiles, and is a centre for agriculture in the Banat, with 54,000 hectares of ar-able and extremely fertile land in its possession. For sports fans, the Mil-lennium sport centre, built in 2002, hosts domestic and international championships.

But most people visit Vrsac for its

wines. There have been vineyards in this area for more than five centuries. About 300 varieties of grapes are grown and about 120 kinds of wines are produced on the hilly vineyards. The town abounds in wine cellars, and every third weekend in Septem-ber a harvest/wine festival is held. Connoisseurs say white wines from these vineyards are among the best in Serbia, which they attribute to the fact that the grapes grow at a latitude of 45 degrees north, which is ideal in terms of sunlight and warmth. It is suitable for a wide variety of grapes, including muscat, Italian reisling, sauvignon, burgundy, traminac, ca-bernet, merlot and chardonnay.

A walk round the lanes off the main square will bring you to the statue of Borislav Kostic (1887 –1963), a pro-fessional chess grandmaster from the town who attained international fame in Europe and the Americas, and who in 1916 in New York played 20 oppo-nents blindfolded, winning 19 games and drawing one, all the time engag-ing in polite conversation with oppo-nents and spectators.

For lunch or dinner, a good bet is the newly built Villa Breg Hotel, which stands on the hill overlook-ing the town. Plush, but reasonably priced, it offers a selection of classic Serbian fare as well as international dishes.

The climate on the hills around Vrsac is said to be good for asthmat-ics, while the various flora and herbs growing wild there are famous. On account of this diversity of flora and fauna, the richness of the forest eco-system, the landscape and views, the greater area of the forests on these hills and mountains was declared a natural park in 1982.

Fishermen can enjoy angling on the river Karas, the canal Danube-Tisa-Danube, and in local fishing ponds. Nearby, in the Vrsac marsh, there is a lake where both anglers and hunters gather. The lake teems with fish, while the surrounding area is home to mallards and wild geese.

Among the most significant local cultural events are The Days of the Grape Picking; The Wreath of Vrsac (an international folk festival; The Days of Vasko Popa (a Romanian poet); In Search of Paja Jovanovic (a photographer/painter); the Vrsac Autumn Theatre, dedicated to Jovan Sterija Popović; and The Bora Kostic Memorial Chess Tournament.

While walking around, look up at the many intriguing façades on public buildings and homes. Build-ings to seek out in particular are the City Hall, dating from 1757, the 18th century palace of the Serbian Ortho-dox bishops, the baroque pharmacy, which today houses an interesting museum, and St Gerhard’s Catholic Church. Budding pilots and aviation buffs might like to visit the JAT flight academy, based at the local airport. Organised visits are possible.

Further information:www.serbia-tourism.org/srpski/tekst.php?podaci=vino_e.txt&gde=vrs

Hotel Villa Breg: www.villabreg.com/default_en.asp

National Museum: www.muzejvrsac.org.yu/GMV.htm

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

10 life Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Branislav Kralic smiles as his trainer, Tanja Bogdanovic, tells him to con-centrate on what his feet are doing. This 65-year-old has decided to learn to rollerblade “because it’s the best dynamic exercise in nature”. After only his fifth class, he seems to be getting the hang of it!

This group of friends gets together every day at 3pm on this pitch. Whilst we were there, they spent as much time yelling at each other as they spent actually playing, but that’s part of the fun, they told us.

In the summer, the cycle tracks are crowded, not just with cyclists but rollerbladers, couples and families out for a stroll, pushchairs, scooters and delivery vehicles. As it starts to cool down and the fair-weather vistors stop coming, only the hard-core remain.

Bane Karbinovic, 47, and Dragan Kickarevic, 46, have been playing tennis on this court since 1991. During an average week, they play four hours of tennis. When we caught up with this pair, the sun was going down and they were still at it. “Sport comes above everything in my life,” says Dragan,

Inspired by the neolithic stone circles at Stonehenge in the UK, artist Ranko Vulanovic’s 1996 work may not ulimately have the same longevity, but the installation certainly makes a great frame for the fountain.

Nina and Jovan can’t ride their bikes on the streets at home so they come to Ada to let off steam.

Ada Ciganlija is often called the “poor man’s sea”, though in fact nearly everyone visits this man-made lake.

In the summer, thousands of Belgraders flock here to relax, sunbathe and swim.

However, in the autumn, Ada takes on a different character. As the cafes, restaurants and nightclubs wind down, and the colder weather approaches, only those made of sterner suff remain.

They rollerblade, cycle, jog, play basket-ball and tennis, play rubgy and football or work-out with friends.

We joined them one cold Saturday after-noon and met pensioners learning to rollerb-lade, a group of friends playing soccer, two youngsters biking along paths and a couple of hard-core tennis fans playing out a never-ending match.

Indian Summer Work Out in Ada CiganlijaLike Central Park in New York, or Hyde Park in London, Ada Ciganlija is a slice of peace and mother nature in the heart of a big city.

Text by Vanja PetrovicPhotos by Sophie Cottrell

Byzantium: a treasure trove from across the empire

11the belgrader 11the belgrader

‘Byzantium’ at the Royal Academy

Every so often, a major exhibi-tion in London rises well above the ordinary, which is the case

with the widely praised and recently opened exhibition “Byzantium” at the Royal Academy in London.

From the moment you enter the dark and mysterious first hall, domi-nated by a vast church chandelier, you feel as if you have crossed the portals of an ancient Orthodox ca-thedral, an impression maintained as you progress through the series of halls in which treasures glow in their cabinets in soothing semi-darkness.

It’s a tall order, to try to compress an idea of an empire that lasted for more than a thousand years into a half-dozen rooms located in central London but the Academy has done a superb job. Eschewing the complex-ity of the political, social and dynas-tic turmoil that gripped an empire that constantly shifted shape over the centuries, the Academy has concen-trated on art and culture.

Primarily, of course, this means religious art, and religious cul-

ture, because although Constantine founded the city in the 330s as the “new Rome”, (mainly because it was strategically better positioned than Rome), Byzantium, as it also became known, shed the Latin language and pagan traditions of the old Rome and assumed a thoroughly Greek and Christian persona.

For that reason, “Byzantium” mainly comprises icons, church chandeliers, church bells, reliquar-ies, covers for service books for use in church services and other religious items. To anyone such as myself, who might have feared this would be repetitive, the diversity of objects came as a revelation; Byzantine art-ists clearly compensated for their narrow range of Christian themes by making imaginative use of materi-als. Glowing icons of egg and tem-pura jostle for space beside jewel-encrusted, beaten-silver book covers, perfume holders and incense braziers fashioned out of metal into the shapes of cathedrals and churches, and bone and ivory caskets with gospel and saints stories carved on the sides.

While the emphasis on the empire’s culture is unashamedly and correctly religious, the exhibitors have not for-gotten the fact that when they were not surging in and out of the great church of the Holy Wisdom to see the Patriarch and the Emperor presiding over magnificent liturgies, the people

of Constantinople/Byzantium lived and died, married, conducted busi-ness, made love and ate and drank.

In one chamber, as a result, the visitor leaves the semi-ecclesiastical darkness of the other halls and plung-es into bright light to find a display of domestic artefacts: glazed plates with designs that might have been made yesterday, some very trendy looking spoons, children’s sandals and hoods and a charming scent bottle, shaped like a fish. How little basic design ide-as have changed in a thousand years!

The provenance of the items comes as a highly effective reminder of the vastness of this empire at its high point. Many artefacts come from as far away as Egypt, for ex-ample. Balkan visitors will be struck by the number of items hailing from Serbia and Macedonia. Clearly, the curators of the Royal Academy conveyed their enthusiasm to coun-terparts in Belgrade and Skopje, because the National Museum and Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade and the Icon Gallery in Ohrid are ex-ceedingly well represented. The Pec Patriarchate loaned one of the most eye-catching items of all, a beauti-fully carved 15th-century bell.

The Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453 but its religious expression, the Orthodox Church, lives on, and the church’s broadly anti-Western mindset continues to set agendas in the Balkans, vis-a-vis both Turkey and the West. However, as the exhibition notes, the Byzantine Empire was not the static, inward-looking, hermetically sealed entity that some imagine. The last cham-bers explore the extent to which the Latin West, the Byzantine Empire the Ottoman Muslims all borrowed

from - and influenced - one another extensively in the arts. At the same time, the exhibition does not forget that the sack of Constantinople in the 1200s by Western so-called crusaders was a formative experience, cement-ing feelings of distrust on the part of the Orthodox world for the Catholic West that have never entirely faded. In short, this exhibition is far more than a display of beautiful objects,

though it is certainly that as well. Not to be missed.

Details: Byzantium runs until 22 March 2009 at the Royal Academy. Price £12.00See: www.royalacedemy.org/byzantium

Marcus Tanner is an editor of Balkan Insight. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.

Serbian and Macedonian treas-ures form a significant part of the display at this magnificent exhibition, covering a thousand years of history.

By Marcus Tanner

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Proud owners Zivko and Zorica

With a bakery on nearly every corner in Bel-grade, why bother to

visit Zivko and Zorica Djuroski’s Nasa Pekara (Our Bakery), tucked away on a tiny side street in the city’s Crveni Krst area? Just one bite of any of their products will shout out the answer for you: taste and quality. You’ll no sooner leave the shop with a bag full of goodies than you’ll be planning your next trip. The bakery’s been at the same location since 1912, and has been in the Djuroski family since 1963. Zorica is a Serbian-American, and has happily fit right in to a baker’s life since she married Zivko.

Located on a short street running parallel to Bulevar Kralja Aleksan-dra, the bakery is easily reachable by the number 7 tram. Hop off at Vuk’s Monument and walk up the boul-evard a bit, and soon you’ll smell

the aroma of garlic bread wafting toward you and pass customers bus-tling along munching on croissants or cakes. Nasa Pekara offers classic fare: several kinds of burek, pigs in a blanket (rol-vrsle), croissants, rolls, and just-greasy-enough pogacice, in addition to trendier whole wheat, rye, barley, corn, garlic breads and fresh-ly-made sandwiches. Zorica and two helpers greet each customer with a “dobar dan” and a smile.

The bakery’s eight assistants work like a well-greased machine, rolling out dough, filling small cakes, and removing trays from the oven to serve a motley group of customers: school children, pensioners, elegant-ly dressed ladies, and modish guys and girls, all waiting patiently.

Sample some of Zorica’s famous chocolate chip cookies, muffins and filled doughnuts, just some of the recipes she brought along with her from the US after she married. They also make their own versions of Ser-bian-style finger cakes (sitni kolaci), such as fig-walnut balls and prune and apricot filled cakes.

For the moment, Zivko has opened just this one location. “We’d surely do better in another location downtown, but,” he says with a grin, “everything’s already selling like hot cakes, so I’d rather just stay here!” Nasa Pekara welcomes large orders if placed a few days ahead.

Nasa PekaraKajmakcalanska 5063 8139754Tues – Sun 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Family-run Nasa Pekara has been satisfying pastry-loving Belgraders since 1912 and is going strong.

By Pat Andjelkovic

Not Just Another Bakery

Photo by Pat Andjelkovic

12 the belgrader

Dining out

Balzac

By “Trencherman”

Nevio Sirotic works his magic at Balzac throughout November Photo by Vanja Petrovic

Forgive me, please, if I get a lit-tle pretentious in the next 800 words or so. I’m prone, so I’m

told, to use two long words where one short one would do, particularly when talking about food and drink and particularly when I’ve enjoyed myself.

When dinner-party discussion turns to good restaurants in town, the name Balzac is unlikely to feature in many people’s lists. So, it was a brave move to import the kitchen of Nevio Sirotic to Belgrade for the month of November to offer us two “cuisine d’auteur” menus, the first based loosely around the olive and the second, the truffle.

Chef proprietor Sirotic runs Tok-larija, a small restaurant in a convert-ed farmhouse set in the hills above Buzet, which for some years has drawn rave reviews for its combi-nation of the finest local ingredients and traditional Istrian menus.

Believing no serious foodie could pass up the opportunity to sample one of Gault Millau’s Croatian high-lights, and knowing there would be only 16 covers served each night, I booked for the opening night. Now, either not many of us heard, or there’s not many of us. There were, I believe, just eight diners. I can’t be-lieve Belgrade doesn’t have a com-mitted nucleus of food fanatics and

so will have to blame the marketing.Sirotic, however, did us proud.

The fixed-price menu included six courses, aperitifs, wines and digestifs at 5,500 dinars and was without doubt the best €65 I’ve spent in any restau-rant in Belgrade. My advice? Book now before you finish the review, be-fore anyone else has the chance.

As I describe the food and drink you should assume that everything was perfect, or nearly so, and this will save me the need to find fresh superlatives for each course.

We were greeted with a quince-and-honey rakija, which was sweet and fruity and led us into a first course of two different salamis, both firm and meaty, served with a local cheese described as ricotta but firmer and less grainy; some marinated mushroom; and a little cold mashed potato with apple slices and a gener-ous splash of olive oil. The wine was the chef’s own malvazija, musky and intense with a little fruit and a golden yellow colour.

Next: soup. Beans, cabbage and smoked bacon. Hearty and thick and intensely savoury, served with a lit-tle more of the same malvazija. Then a beef carpaccio, rocket and parme-san salad, the highlight of which was the fruitiest, most flavourful olive oil dressing. Another, different, malvazija accompanied this and was perhaps Sirotic’s only mistake. It was not that the wine itself was poor - far from it - just that it lacked the necessary acidity to cope with the oilyness of the salad.

A red wine, another of the chef’s own, light, reminiscent of a good pi-not noir, worked well with the pasta course that came next. Air-dried pancetta and cheese stuffed into lit-tle pasta parcels with a dusting of cheese and cubes of pancetta on top.

No sauce, just three great flavours - perfect. Sirotic apparently likes his piglets at around 5-7kg, so by the time they hit the plate they’ve done precious little squealing. But they certainly make a great stew. Melt-ingly tender pork cooked for many hours so that the fat had rendered off, leaving just moist meat with a little light jus, served with pickled cab-bage. Simple but so well executed.

With this we had perhaps the finest wine of the night, an intensely full Damijan, slightly tannic, plummy and long lasting.

Cherry-filled gnocci, with a little deeply flavoured cherry sauce followed and perhaps were just a little too robust and heavy to round off six courses but a cherry schnapps, eased them down.

Coffees and a fine Serbian plum rakija finished off the evening.

The staff provided faultless serv-ice and were well informed about the dishes and wines. If you have the cash and the opportunity, this is not something you should miss.

Price: 5,500 dinars all inclusive

Restoran Tokaria at BalzacStrahinijica Bana 13Tel: 011 3285906

Istrian chef proprietor Nevio Sirotic displays his talents with this six-course ‘cuisine d’auteur’ menu.

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

Danguba

By Vanja Petrovic

Remember when glam metal was cool? I don’t, in fact, but for the sake of argument I’ll

assume it’s because this movement took the world by storm before I was born. Or maybe I’ve just been oblivi-ous to its influence. Maybe, I’ve been living in an isolated Indie circle for too long.

I have to admit that when we walked into Danguba, I felt a bit un-easy. As we descended the stairs to this tiny, dark club, time warped and I felt we were on the set of a White-snake music video. I’d never seen so much teased hair in one place, and I didn’t think they made leather jack-ets anymore. “How is this possible?” I thought, “when it was 2008 a few seconds ago?” But, then: “No, you

have to give it a chance. Your hipster friends can’t save you now.”

So, I gave it a chance. We squeezed our way to the front, settled in next to a guy I was told to avoid at all cost – apparently, everyone there knew each other. The cover band, Pro rock, was led by a man with greasy hair dressed in a black cut-off T-shirt and ripped jeans who was screaming “Shot Through the Heart” by Bon Jovi.

As the night progressed, I calmed down. I even danced a bit. At one point I found myself in sync with the place. A familiar tune came from the synthesizer, a tune people the world over would instantaneously recog-nize, and before the lead singer could even begin, the entire crowd - me in-cluded - was yelling “I, I just died in your arms tonight/ it must have been something you said/ I just died in your arms tonight.”

However pretentious you may be when it comes to music, I know that

you’ve listened and danced to this song, even if only when no one was around. You may even have played it on repeat. Several times. I am still a bit in denial about what happened that night but I think I experienced musical freedom.

It was then that I understood the beauty of Danguba. It isn’t your typi-cal Belgrade scene. It’s a place to es-

cape the Janet Jackson look-a-likes that my colleagues Zoran Milosav-ljevic and Richard Wordsworth keep writing about, and that in itself forms part of its charm.

One of the most attractive things about this place is that everyone re-ally is there just to have a good time listening to music that they truly en-joy. You have to appreciate that, no

matter what your tastes may be. In other words, I’m recommending the place. But don’t tell anyone. To get in is heinously cheap, at only at 100 dinars. The drinks follow in the same vein, with nearly everything under the 100-dinar mark.

Klub DangubaCirila i Metodija 2

Ever dreamed of screaming cheesy songs at the top of your voice, but felt deeply ashamed of wanting to do so? This place is for you.

Going out

Danguba - not a cheese shop, just cheesey Source: myspace.com

13sportFriday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008 13sportFriday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008 13sport

In the Driving Seat of a Ramshackle Train

Falling Roof Hands Cavic the Italian Job TV Events

By Zoran Milosavljevic

By Zoran Milosavljevic

A five-point gap between the front-runners and the chas-ing pack less than halfway

through a football season usually means a wide open title race. Teams in Europe’s top leagues have squan-dered bigger leads in a short space of time while others have been able to make up lost ground and snatch the silverware from their rivals on the last day of the season.

In Serbia, the annual two-way bat-tle for supremacy between champi-ons Partizan Belgrade and their eter-nal city foes Red Star has not gone down to the wire for some time. Hav-ing romped to their 20th league title last season, Partizan appear set to put another one under their belt although they are only five points clear of clos-

“I really wanted to stay in Bel-grade to live and train here but that is an impossible mission.

It is most regrettable that I have to leave and continue my preparations in Italy,” Serbia’s Olympic hero Milorad Cavic said last week after finding that Serbia’s capital, whose population is around 2.5 million, does not have a swimming pool available for one of the world’s top swimmers to train in.

Sounds like a bad joke, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. Belgrade has two indoor aquatic centres for the general popu-lation’s recreational activities, all its professional water polo teams and swimmers. One of the two is currently out of use after a ceiling cracked and it was only through a divine act of fortune that it did not collapse. Cavic, who won the Olympic 100 metres butterfly silver medal for Serbia at the Beijing Olympics after capturing gold at the European Championship in Eindhoven earlier this year, has nowhere to train in Belgrade. Worse still, he has almost nowhere to live in this part of the world.

The Serbian government, prom-ised to donate U.S.-born Cavic a

flat after he finished behind Michael Phelps in the closest swimming race in Olympic history, one that re-quired a video replay to determine the winner. When the euphoria died down, the promise, according to Cavic, boiled down to allowing him to use one.

“I know the government has a lot of issues but there is no point in making promises you can’t keep. I am disappointed to be honest and I think I deserve more credit after what I have done for my country,” a disil-lusioned Cavic said. Not surprisingly, because he could have so easily cho-sen another country, not least the one he was born in, from Serbian parents. His coach was quick to dispel any fears that Cavic might ask for Italian citizenship either, which may look

like a good option, given that his only current alternatives are paying for a hotel in Belgrade, sleeping on his aunt’s couch in the city centre or re-turning to Florida to live with his par-ents. “It was a very difficult decision to make but I had no choice because staying in Belgrade any longer would be a waste of time,” said Cavic. “The water in the only swimming pool available is cold and it’s also open for public use whenever I am scheduled to train, so I am really not optimistic about things changing for the better in the near future,” he added.

Indeed, it is a rather forlorn hope and the only question that remains is how long Serbia will be able to hold on to Cavic and other top ath-letes who are light-years ahead of the country’s infrastructure.

Friday, Nov 7:

French Top 14 Rugby Union: Montpellier v Paris (Eurosport 2 at 8.30 p.m.); Soccer: FC Cologne v Hannover (Sport Klub 8.30 p.m.), Leeds v Northampton – FA Cup first round (Sport Klub + 8.45 p.m.), Argentine-an League (Sport Klub + 11.00 p.m.)

Saturday, Nov 8:

Rugby League World Cup: England v New Zealand (Sport Klub 9.50 a.m.); Alpine Skiing World Cup: Women’s Slalom (Eurosport 10.00 am.) Basket-ball - Regional NLB League: FMP Belgrade v Partizan Belgrade (FOX Serbia 4.00 p.m.), KK Zagreb v He-mofarm Vrsac (HRT 2 at 4.00 p.m.); Soccer: Arsenal v Manchester United (RTS 2; kick off at 1.45 p.m. live cov-erage possible or delayed at 4.00 p.m.), Leicester v Stevenage – FA Cup first round (Sport Klub 4.00 p.m.), Liver-

pool v West Bromwich (RTS 2 at 6.30 p.m.), NEC Nijmegen v PSV Eind-hoven (Sport Klub + 6.45 p.m.), Real Madrid v Malaga (FOX Serbia 8.00 p.m.), Bologna v Roma (Sport Klub 8.30 p.m.), Barcelona v Real Valladol-id (FOX Serbia 10.00 p.m.), Blythe Spartans v Shrewsbury – FA Cup first round (Sport Klub 10.30 p.m.), SV Hamburg v Borussia Dortmund (Sport Klub + 11.00 p.m. delayed); NHL Ice Hockey: New York Island-ers v Pittsburgh Penguins (Sport Klub 1.00 a.m. Sunday)

Sunday, Nov 9:

Alpine Skiing World Cup: Men’s Slalom (Eurosport 10.00 a.m.); Bas-ketball: NBA Regular Season: LA Clippers v Dallas Mavericks (OBN at 10.30 p.m.); NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers v Indiana-polis Colts (Sport Klub 10.15 p.m.), Chicago Bears v Tennessee Titans (Sport Klub 1.30 a.m. Monday); Soccer: Spartak Moscow v Loko-motiv Moscow (Sport Klub + 12.00 a.m.), Sutton v Notts County – FA Cup first round (Sport Klub 1.00 p.m.), Blackburn v Chelsea (RTS 2 at 2.30 p.m.), Inter Milan v Udinese (OBN and Avala 3.00 p.m.), Schalke v Bayern Munich (Sport Klub 5.00 p.m.), Fulham v Newcastle (RTS 2 at 5.00 p.m.), Sevilla v Recreativo Huelva (FOX Serbia 7.00 p.m.), Lecce v Milan (Avala and Sport Klub 8.30 p.m.), PSG v Lille (Sport Klub + 9.00 p.m.), Argentinean League (Sport Klub + 11.30 p.m.)

With a third of the season gone, champions Partizan look set to win the Serbian “Superleague” with bitter city foes Red Star un-able to find any consistency. But is there any glamour left in the prize?

A complete lack of funds and fa-cilities force Serbia’s top swim-mer into exile after his most impressive performances for his country

est rivals, Vojvodina Novi Sad, with merely a third of the season gone.

Why is that? Quite simply be-cause Vojvodina are not genuine title contenders and although they have a history of upsetting the “big two” every so often, their lack of depth and financial muscle, when compared with Partizan and Red Star, confines them to a perennial third-place finish. It will take something special from them to leapfrog Partizan this season and their away match to Red Star on Saturday will be the first test of their ability to hang in there.

Red Star, on the other hand, trail Partizan by nine points and face a seemingly impossible task to wipe out the deficit, given that most of their performances this season have been awful by the standards of a club that won the European Cup in 1991. One would have found it hardly imagina-ble for Red Star to have just five wins and as many as four defeats from 11 games in a 12-team “Superleague,” whose name is nothing short of laugh-able given its quality. Having gone down to the likes of Borac Cacak and Javor Ivanjica, it came as no surprise that Red Star also suffered emphatic 2-0 defeats to both Vojvodina and Partizan in the opening stage of the season. Hence, even a runners-up fin-ish might be a tall order for Red Star as they soldier on through one of their most troubled seasons in recent his-tory.

The club’s Czech Zdenek Ze-man never found his feet after he

took over during the summer break and his Macedonian successor Ce-domir Janevski has convinced few people that he is a worthy long-term replacement. The club’s fans are not just interested in wrestling the title back from Partizan. They want to see Champions League football or at least an end to early UEFA Cup exits such as this season’s first qualifying round defeat to Cypriots APOEL Nicosia, which underlined the embarrassing fact that Red Star have failed to survive the winter break in Europe for 17 years. With

this crop of players and a board lacking the zest required to pull the club out of the doldrums, Red Star could face more barren international years and also a very difficult task to dethrone Partizan.

The champions have given a glimmer of hope to their rivals with a patchy run, which followed a perfect start of seven straight wins. Partizan have managed only one win in their last four league games and lost their opening UEFA Cup group match to Italian rivals Sampdoria in the proc-ess, prompting widespread opinions

that they still lack the steel to mix it with Europe’s big boys despite being too good for Serbian opposition at the moment. That emphasizes how sadly deprived of any real quality the Ser-bian “Superleague” is and one must wonder whether a proposed expan-sion to 16 clubs will help improve its potential or actually dilute it to a level not worth mentioning.

Zoran Milosavljevic is Belgrade Insight’s sports writer and also a regional sports correspondent for Reuters.

Igor Burzanovic (centre) and his Red Star team mates are in dire straits

Milorad Cavic is swimming against the tide Source: www.svevesti.com

Photo by FoNet

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

14 the belgrader

What’s On

My Picks

CINEMAS RODA CINEPLExPozeska 83A , tel: 011 2545260

Quantum of Solace 18:00, 20:15 & 22:30Turneja (The Tour) 20:30 & 22:30The House Bunny 17:45 & 20:00Wall E 16:15Journey to the Center of the Earth 16:00Star Wars: The Clone Wars 16:30Max Payne 22:15Nim’s Island 18:30

DOM SINDIKATATrg Nikole Pasica 5, tel. 011 3234849

Turneja (The Tour) 20:00Quantum of Solace 16:15, 18:15, 19:15, 20:15, 21:15 & 22:15Max Payne 22:00The House Bunny 16:00,18:00 & 20:00Ljubav i drugi zlocini (Love and Other Crimes) 18:00 & 22:00Wall - E 16:15Mamma Mia! 17:15

STER CITY CINEMADelta City, Jurija Gagarina 16 (Blok 67), tel: 011 2203400

The House Bunny 13:50, 16:00, 18:10, 20:20 & 22:30Quantum of Solace 11:20, 12:00, 13:30, 14:10, 15:40, 16:20, 17:50, 18:30, 20:00, 20:40, 22:10 & 22:50Death Race 12:40, 14:50, 17:00, 19:10, 21:20 & 23:40Max Payne 19:40, 21:40 & 23:40Nim’s Island 11:10, 13:10, 15:20 & 17:40Mamma Mia! 12:20, 14:30, 16:40, 18:50, 21:00 & 23:10

TUCKWOOD CINEPLExKneza Milosa 7, tel: 011 3236517

Quantum of Solace 15:30, 16:15, 18:00, 18:30, 20:15, 21:00, 22:30 & 23:15Turneja (The Tour) 16:00, 18:15, 20:30 & 22:45Max Payne 15:30, 17:30 & 19:30The House Bunny 15:40, 17:45 & 20:00Milos Brankovic 21:30Death Race 23:20Mirrors 22:05Nim’s Island 17:45 & 19:15Mirrors 21:15 & 23:30

CONCERTS JEAN MICHEL JARRE

Bright lights, pyrotechnics, millions of people and electronic music are usually associated with raves. However this is not technically what will happen on Saturday night at the Belgrade Arena. Jean Michel Jarre will perform for the first time in Bel-grade. His concerts are known for record breaking capacity crowds and their over- the-top visual effects, as well as the oc-casional strung out fan.

Belgrade ArenaBulevar Arsenija Carnojevica 58November 8, 20:00Tickets available at Belgrade Arena ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg Republike 5

BELGRADE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

One of the finest orchestra in the country performs Tchaikovsky’s Swan lake suite and Symphony No 5 and Mendelssohn’s Concerto e-moll, conducted by Robin O’Neill.

Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation HallStudentski trg 5November 7, 20:00Tickets available at Ilija M. Kolarac

Foundation Hall ticket office

BALLETNATIONAL THEATRERepublic Square 1a

The Impure Blood

Ballet based on the eponymous novel of Serbian novelist Bora Stankovic about the

OPERAPAGLIACCI

This opera has all the proper elements of a love triangle: the jealous husband, a cheating wife and her lover. The occupa-tion of the characters is what sets it apart. They are a traveling group of clowns. The plot gets a little tricky when, despite the discovered affair, they must continue performing. Revenge, clowns and murder make sure that this is not just your grand-mother’s opera.

National TheatreRepublic Square 1aNovember 9, 12:00Tickets available at National Theatre ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg Republike 5

THEATRETERAZIJE THEATERTerazije 29

Gypsies Go To Heaven

Musical based on the short story Makar Chudra by Maxim Gorky.

November 11, 19:30Tickets available at Terazije Theatre ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg Republike 5

EXHIBITIONSREMONT GALLERYMakedonska 5Mon - Fri 11:00 - 19:00

Couples

Exhibition of paintings by Daniel GlidNovember 3 - 14

SULUJ GALLERYTerazije 26Mon - Fri 11:00 - 18:00Saturday 11:00 - 14:00

Checkmate

Exhibition of paintings by Nadezda MarkovskiNovember 3 - 15

GRAFICKI KOLEKTIV GALLERYObilicev venac 27Mon - Fri 11:00 - 20:00Saturday 10:00 - 16:00

Prints

Graphic exhibition by Aleksandar Mlad-enovic LekaNovember 3 - 15

O3ONE GALLERYAndricev vecnac 12Mon- Sat 12:00 - 20:00

Sunny Day

Aleksandra Stratimirovic’s award-winning artwork has become popular because of its composition. She doesn’t use paint or clay. Her palate is an array of thousands of test tubes containing expertly mixed liquid. When you step back, the effect is impressionistic. What seems odd up close is really an impressive masterpiece from a few steps back.November 3 - 12

CLUBBINGSTUDENT CULTURAL CENTRE (SKC)Kralja Milana 48

Cocoon BelgradeGuy Gerber, ExtraweltVlada Janjic, Gordan Paunovic, Dee Face

November 8, 22:00

THE TUBEDobracina 17

Peppe & CobaNovember 8, 22:00

ANDERGRAUNDPariska 1a

Black in white lounge - Pure black groovesNovember 13, 22:00

decay of a once wealthy family from the southern Serbian town of Vranje in the late 19th century.

November 8, 19:30Tickets available at National Theatre ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg Re-publike 5

ANNUAL EVENTS11TH PANCEVO JAZZ FESTIVAL

Renowned jazz musicians of different generations come to Pancevo to celebrate jazz.

Pancevo Cultural CentreVojvode Zivojina Misica 4, PancevoNovember 7 - 8

FREE ZONE FILM FESTIVAL

If typical Hollywood movies have started to get a little stale, try the 4th Annual Free Zone Film Festival. There are 17 different films to choose from, but all are concerned to some extent with current politics around the world. US President Bush’s war on ter-ror and a French defence attorney’s fasci-nation with crime are a few controversial topics at this festival.

Belgrade Cultural CentreKolarceva 6November 7 - 12Tickets available at BCC ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg Republike 5

ISRAELI CINEMA WEEK

The museum of Yugoslav Film in asso-ciation with the Israeli Embassy in Bel-grade present a week of Israeli cinema during which seven feature films will be screened.

Museum of Yugoslav Film AchiveKosovska 11November 5 - 11Tickets available at Museum of Yugoslav Film Achive ticket office

Garden Center Florist

There are plenty of flower shops all over Belgrade, but a good deal of the arrangements they

offer are uninspiring and stuffed with filler. If you’re looking for an eye-catching arrangement for your home or to give as a gift, one good choice is the Garden Center Florist at Kalenic.

Garden Center, whose impressive full-service operation is hidden in Vidikovac, offers spectacular quality cut flowers and arrangements, as well as a small selection of plants, pots and potting compost, in two store fronts on the outer edge of the market.

This past weekend I purchased three enormous, stunning purple-blue hydrangeas, which were bundled to-gether with a few branches of a dark-leaved pepper plant. The arrangement is beautiful, and at 1,250 dinars, it could give any New York flower shop a run for its money. Plus, the gorgeous hydrangea blooms dry without losing any of their colour. I still have some from last autumn on display.

The Garden Center Florist is lo-cated right next to the entrance to the Kalenic parking garage, across from Safran Shoes at 1b Maksima Gorkog.

Mon - Sun 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

By Rian Harris

Flower arrangements should in-spire, and make the space they inhabit, more beautiful. But where can you find that perfect arrangement for the coffee table or a present?

Floral treats at Garden Center Florist Photos by Sophie Cottrell

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

15directory

TAXI SERVICES

Beo Taxi 011 9801Blue Taxi 011 555999 Joker Taxi 011 3971174Lux Taxi 011 3033123Pink Taxi 011 9803Taxi Bell 011 9808Yellow Taxi 011 9802

BEAUTICIANS

MIOLIFT STUDIOTrg Nikole Pasica 8Tel: 011 3340554 www.centarlepote.co.yu NENATerazije 42, 1st floorTel: 011 3619115, 011 619577WELLNESS CENTAR ZORICADobracina 33, Bulevar Despota Stefana 71, 2nd floorTel: 011 3285922, 011 3243940, 063 356001 www.zorica.co.yuSPA CENTARStrahinjica Bana 5Tel: 011 3285408www.spacentar.co.yuoffice@spacentar.co.yu

BUILDERSENJUBBulevar Mihajla Pupina 20Tel: 011 2601673www.enjub.co.yuinfo@enjub.co.yu

COSMETIC & HEALTH SERVICESKOMNENUS Kraljice Natalije 19Tel: 011 3613677 www.komnenus.comoffice@komnenus.comANTI-AGING CENTARNikolaja Ostrovskog 3Tel: 011 2199645www.aacentar.com EPILION dermatological laser centreAdmirala Geprata 13Tel: 011 3611420, 011 3615203 www.epilion.co.yu, info@epilion.co.yu

DENTISTSBIG TOOTH Mite Ruzica 10aTel: 063 8019190 www.big-tooth.comdr.ilic@beotel.yuFAMILY DENTISTBulevar Dr Zorana Djindica bbTel: 011 136437 www.familydentist.co.yuordinacija@familydentist.co.yuBELDENTBrankova 23Tel: 011 2634455APOLONIJAStevana Sremca 13, Tel: 011 3223420DUKADENTPariske Komune 11Tel: 011 3190766

ESTATE AGENTSAS-YUBC ESTATEBul. Mihajla Pupina 10aTel: 011 3118424, 063 371 879as.yubc@sbb.co.yuEURENT Dobracina 21Tel: 011 3038662 www.eurent.co.yuinfo@eurent.co.yu

EVENTS & CATERERS

VILLA CATERINGKrunska 69, BeogradTel: 011 3442656, 3835570, 063 207976www.villa-catering.comoffice@villa-catering.com

PARTY SERVICE Tel: 011 3946461GODOSavski kej bbTel: 011 2168101BUTTERFLY CATERINGTel: 011 2972027, 063 7579825office@butterfly-catering.rsALEKSANDRA-ANAIS Tel/fax: 011 4898173 063 7775889 office@aleksandra-anais.co.yu CATERING CLUB DBTel. 065 8099819Fax: 011 2980800cateringclubdb@eunet.yuCATERING PLUSPalmira Toljatija 5 Tel: 011 2608410 office@catering.co.yuDIPLOMAT CATERINGJosipa Slavenskog 10Tel: 011 3672605diplomatcatering@icomline.netEURO CATERING Prve pruge 211080 ZemunTel/fax: 011 3190469office@eurocatering.co.yu

FLORISTS

MALA VRTNA RADIONICA Spanskih boraca 22g Tel: 011 3130300www.mvr.co.yumvr@verat.net CVET ExPRES Rajka Od Rasine 28Tel: 011 2545987 INTERFLORAVojvode Stepe 405Tel: 011 462687 TELEFLORASvetogorska 11Tel: 011 03030047/048

HAIR STYLISTSHAIR FACTORYKosovska 37/10Tel: 011 3227775www.hairfactory.co.yuvlada@hairfactory.co.yuExCLUSIVE UNISEx HAIR SALONEALEKSANDARBulevar Despota Stefana 96Tel: 011 2087602 www.aleksandar.weebly.comfsaleksandar@gmail.com

INTERNET HOTSPOTS123 wap Vase Pelagica 48Absinthe Kralja Milutina 33 Backstage Restaurant Svetogorska 19BAR Central Kralja Petra 59Bistro Pastis Strahinjica Bana 52BBizzareZmaj Jovina 25Café bar MODA Njegoseva 61Café Biblioteka Terazije 27Café Koeficijent Terazije 15-23Café Nautilus Turgenjeva 5Café Paleta Trg Republike 5Celzijus Dzordza Vasingtona 12Coffee dream Kralja Petra 23Café Pianeta 27. Marta 141Colonial Sun Bul. Vojvode Putnika 32-34Cuba Café Kneza Viseslava 63Extreme kids Cvijiceva 1Gradski Macor Svetozara Markovica 43Ice bar Kosovska 37Idiott Dalmatinska 13Insomnia Strahinjica Bana 66AIpanema Strahinjica Bana 68Journal Kralja Milutina 21Koling Klub Neznanog junaka 23Kontra Bar Strahinjica Bana 59 Langust Kosancicev venac 29Mart Caffe Krunska 6Monin Bar Dositejeva 9AMonument Admirala Geprata 14New York, New York Krunska 86Oktopus Brace Krsmanovic 3O’Polo Café Rige od Fere 15Pietro Dell Oro Trnska 2Pomodoro Hilandarska 32Que pasa Kralja Petra 13Rezime Centar Cafe Kralja Petra 41Veprov dah Strahinjica Bana 52Vespa Bar Toplicin venac 6Via Del Gusto Knez Mihailova 48

GYMS, LEISURE & SPORTS CENTRES

ExTREME GYM TC ABC Cvijiceva 1Tel: 011 2768255www.x3mgym.comextremegym@x3mgym.comLPG CENTARYU BIZNIS Centre, Bulevar Mihaila Pupina 10bTel: 011 3130806lpgstosic@eunet.yu, www.lpgsalon.co.yu

RELAx PLATOBeogradjanka Tower Masarikova 5, 5th floorTel: 011 3061765www.relaxplato.comGOLF CLUB BEOGRAD Ada Ciganlija 2Tel: 063 8963816 PARTIZAN SHOOTING CLUB Tel: 011 2647942, 064 801 9900Fax: 011 2647261www.partizanshooting.rs info@partizanshooting.rsHIPPODROME BELGRADEPastroviceva 2Tel: 011 3546826

LEGAL SERVICESILS LTD. IN ASSOCIATION WITH CLYDE & COGospodar Jevremova 47Tel: 011 3038822www.clydeco.co.ukclyde@clyde.co.yu HARRISONS SOLICITORSTerazije 34Tel: 011 3615918 www.harisons-solicitors.com KARANOVIC&NIKOLICLepenicka 7Tel: 011 3094200www.karanovic-nikolic.co.yuinfo@karanovic-nikolic.co.yu

MASSEURS

BEAUTY CENTAR Traditional Thai Massage CentreKnez Mihajlova 2-4Tel: 011 3030003www.menta.co.yumenta_bg@ptt.yu

MOVERSALLIED PICKFORDS SERBIAZarka Obreskog 23Tel: 011 8487744www.alliedpickfords.co.yumovers@alliedpickfords.co.yuAGS BELGRADENiski autoput 17Tel: 011 3472321www.agsmovers.combelgrade@agsmovers.com

OPTICIANS

EUROOPTICBulevar kralja Aleksandra 278Tel: 011 2415130www.eurooptic.co.yuOPTIKA BEOGRAD A.D.Cara Urosa 8-10Tel: 011 2629833

PRINTERSDIGITAL PRINTING CENTARCvijiceva 29Tel: 011 2078000www.dpc.co.yu office@dpc.co.yuDIGITAL ARTTel: 011 3617281

HEALTHCAREBEL MEDICViktora Igoa 1Tel. 011 3065888, 011 3066999,063 206602www.belmedic.comBEL MEDICKoste Jovanovića 87Tel. 011 3091000, 065 3091000www.belmedic.comDr. RISTIC HEALTH CENTRENarodnih Heroja 38Tel: 011 2693287 www.dr-ristic.co.yuzcentar@dr-ristic.co.yuLABOMEDICABulevar Kralja Aleksandra 193aTel: 011 3088304www.labomedica.netklinika@labomedica.netPRIVATNA PRAKSA PETROVICKralja Milutina 10Tel: 011 3460777DOM ZDRAVLJA “STARI GRAD” Obilicev venac 30Tel: 011 635236 DOM ZDRAVLJA “VRACAR” Kneginje Zorke 15Tel. 011 2441413

PLUMBERSHAUZMAJSTORFrancuska 56Tel: 011 3034034 office@hauzmajstor.co.yuHIDROTEKLjutice Bogdana 2Tel: 011 2666823kontakt@hidrotek.co.yu

SOLARIUMSSUN FACTORY MEGASUNMaksima Gorkog 82Tel: 011 3440403 sun.factory.megasun@gmail.comORNELA MEGASUNNjegoseva 56Tel: 011 2458398 ornelakbl@eunet.yuSTUDIO MIOLIFT Beograd, Trg Nikole Pašica 8 Tel: 011 3033211, 064 2351313 ALEKSANDAR TEAM Bulevar Despota Stefana 34a Tel: 011 3225632 www.aleksandar-team.co.yu SUN LOOK Makedonska 5 Tel: 011 3343810 www.sunlook-bg.com

TICKET SERVICESBILET SERVICETrg Republike 5IPS & MAMUTMEGASTOREKnez Mihajlova 1Tel: 011 3033311www.ips.co.yu

TRANSLATORSTODOROVIC AGENCYTel: 011 2188197BELGRADE TRANSLATION CENTREDobracina 50/11Tel: 011 3287388www.btc.co.yunatasa.ralic@btc.co.yuLExICA TRANSLATION AGENCYBeogradska 35Tel: 011 3222750www.lexica.co.yuoffice@lexica.co.yu

VETS&PETS

NOVAK VETERINARIAN CLINICVeselina Maslese 55Tel: 011 2851856, 011 2851923www.vetnovak.co.yunovak@ptt.yuVETERINARSKA STANICA LAZAREVIC Zrenjaninski put 30 Tel: 011 3319 015, 063 216 663Fax: +381 (0)11 2712 385OAZA Miklosiceva 11, Tel: 011 4440899

BOOKSTORES

AKADEMIJA Knez Mihailova 35 Tel: 011 2627846 ANTIKVARIJAT Knez Mihailova 35 Tel: 011 636087 BEOPOLIS Makedonska 22 Tel: 011 3229922 DERETA Dostojevskog 7 Tel: 011 3058707, 011 556-445 Kneza Mihaila 46 Tel. 011 3033503, 011 3030 514, 011 627-934 GECA KON Kneza Mihaila 12 Tel. 011 622073 IPS Mercator, Bulevar umetnosti 4 Tel: 011 132872 SUPER VERO Milutina MIlankovica 86a Tel: 011 3130640 IPS BOOK & MUSIC STORE Beoizlog, basement, Trg Republike 5 Tel: 011 3281859 PLATO Knez Mihailova 48 Tel: 011 625834 SKZ Kralja Milana 19 Tel: 011 3231593 STUBOVI KULTURE Knez Mihailova 6 Tel: 011 3281851, 011 632384 THE OxFORD CENTER Dobracina 27 Tel. 011 631021

We welcome suggestions for inclusion in the directory.Please send details to:belgradeinsightmarketing@birn.eu.com

Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008

16 advert Friday, Nov. 7 - Nov. 13, 2008