Nieuws

In the light of an assessment visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina we organized before the summer break we present you the final report. This visit is part of the European Forum, FEPS and Karl-Renner-Institute project “Enhancing democracy pre and post EU accession”.

During a session of the City Hall deputies on the 24th of September Belgrade’s Mayor and leader of the Democratic Party (DS), Dragan Đilas, has been dismissed. Đilas shall continue performing the duty of the capital’s first official in the following thirty days while elections shall be held in six months. In a first reaction Đilas stated that his dismissal is a political deal, has nothing to do with what has been achieved in Belgrade in the last 5 years, and shows that the ruling parties on state level are moving the country towards a dictatorship and one-party system.

Woensdagavond 18 september organiseerde de FMS in samenwerking met de Wiardi Beckman Stichting (WBS) een expertmeeting over de Europese uitbreiding, met hoofdspreker Radmila Sekerinska uit Macedonië. Sekerinska is Parlementariër in Macedonië, voorzitter van de parlementaire commissie voor EU integratie, vicevoorzitter van de Sociaal Democratische Unie (SDSM) en voormalig interim-premier van Macedonië.

Afgelopen weekend werkte de FMS mee aan de 6e jaarlijkse Political Academy training in Macedonië. De andere mede-organisatoren waren onze lokale partner, het Progress Institute, en de Duitse Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Despite ousting the Finance Minister Mlađan Dinkić and his United Regions of Serbia (URS) from the ruling coalition, no early elections will be held in Serbia. According to the main opposition Democratic Party (DS), that has called for early elections, the government reshuffle is a farce through which the government tries to distract attention from its catastrophic results.

On 24 July dozens of hooligans and anti-gay-demonstrators shouted ‘kill the gays’ at the first ever gay pride parade in Montenegro coastal town of Budva. Eggs, stones and bottles where hurdled at around 40 participants in the parade mostly arriving in a police escorted bus from the capital Podgorica.

On July 15, the state-level Parliament has decided to continue the approval of the amendments to the conflict of interest law in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). The move has been criticized by the International Community. According to the amendments, authority to investigate conflict of interests will be transferred from a Central Elections Commission (CEC) to a Parliament commission, a move that could open way for corruption.

In het weekend van 5-7 juli reisden FMS trainers Souad Haouli en Jamila Aanzi naar Servië af om een training te verzorgen voor Democratic Youth Women (DYW), de jongeren vrouwenorganisatie van de Democratische Partij (DS).

Van 6 tot 9 juli organiseerde Foundation Max van der Stoel (FMS) in samenwerking met Progres Institute for Social Democracy en de Friedrich Ebert Stiftinug (FES) een zomerkamp voor 96 jongeren van de Sociaal Democratische Unie van Macedonië (SDSM). FMS trainers Kido Koenig, Gritta Nottelman, Thijs ‘t Hart, Anna van Winden, Ahmed Saijd en Kirsten van den Hul reisden naar het mooie Ohrid af (in 2001 werd mede dankzij de aanbevelingen van Max van der Stoel het Ohrid akkoord getekend tussen de Macedonische regering en de Albanese rebellen die een bloedvergieten voorkwam) om het deel van de zomerkamp dat over campagnevoeren gaat op zich te nemen. Het andere deel, over leiderschap en sociaaldemocratisch beleid, werd verzorgd door de trainers van de Progres Institute, denktank en opleidingsinstituut van de SDSM.

On July 4th, members of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority established their own assembly, as a protest against the steps taken by Belgrade which they see as recognition of the government in Pristina. The provisional assembly has not been recognized by Belgrade. Mayor of the Serb municipality Lepasovic, Slavko Stevanovic, has been elected President of the assembly.