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Development of resistance against small hydropower plants in Serbia

Author(s): Dina Đorđević / Language(s): English

In a new case study, Dina Djordjevic, a journalist of the Centre for Investigative Reporting, presents how local actions against small hydropower plants in Serbia have turned into a mass environmental revolt at the national level.For more than a decade now, small hydropower plants (SHPPs) are being erected en masse on Serbian mountain rivers and streams. Their encouragement is part of a wider story that revolves around the fight against climate change, and around attempts to reduce the production of energy by use of coal, thus increasing the production of electricity in a way that would be less harmful to nature and human health.

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Security sector in a captured state: act two

Author(s): Predrag Petrović,Jelena Pejić Nikić,Luka Šterić / Language(s): English

Due to the damage that state capture causes to the public interest, it is very important to investigate and closely monitor this process in the security sector of Serbia. The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy was the first organisation in the country to point out this negative process and the role that the security sector plays in it. It has conducted its first research on this topic, the findings of which can be found in a study entitled “Capturing the Security Sector of Serbia”. The study in front of you is a continuation of that research. In it, we monitored and documented further state capture and the role of security institutions in that negative process. The research covered the period from the beginning of 2020 to November 2021. It explained the political context of capturing the state, the security services, the police, the army and the Ministry of Defence, within which we analysed the capture of special-purpose [arms] industry and parliamentary oversight of the security sector. Considering the fact that actors who participate in state capture are trying to secure international support for their endeavor, and that they are also making use of the experiences of other captured states, we have analysed the foreign policy aspect of capturing the state, which is a novelty compared to earlier research.

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2021 Elections in Albania: “Facadization” of Tirana and “cannabization” of Albania

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

The upcoming parliamentary elections will once again mean a confrontation between two political groups, one is gathered around the Socialist Party (PS/S&D) and Prime Minister Edi Rama and the other one is the opposition group led by the Democratic Party (PD/EPP) headed by Lulzim Basha, which includes the Movement for Socialist Integration (LSI) headed byMonika Kryemadhi. However, some minor political parties will also participate. The specificity of these elections is the newly adopted controversial election law which regulates that pre-election coalitions are no longer allowed. The law is aimed to prevent consolidation of the opposition, although the PD and LSI, in cooperation with another minor party, had already announced establishment of a pre-election and postelection coalition. The Democratic Party (PD) and the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) boycotted the local elections that took place on 30 June 2019, which were organized by Edi Rama's regime. The turnout at the elections was 22.96% and only the Socialist Party (PS) participated in them.

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Managing change and uncertainty within a Serbian think tank

Author(s): Igor Bandović / Language(s): English

After two years as director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), I have written this piece about the process BCSP went through to consolidate itself as an organisation and to spearhead the work of the think tank community in Serbia and the Balkans on contested and challenging topics in the times of global crisis. Here is our story.

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A Quasi-Arms Race: Serbia and Croatia

Author(s): Marija Ignjatijević,Vuk Vuksanović / Language(s): English

In the last six years, Serbia and Croatia have been upgrading their military arsenals, leading to the conclusion that the two countries are spearheading a new arms race in the Western Balkans. This narrative is misleading as the strategic environment makes inter-state war unlikely and the process is actually about Serbia and Croatia replacing old equipment from the Yugoslav days. However, the two countries use arms procurement as leverage in their respective foreign policies and tools of domestic promotion for their rulling elites. The return of hostility is highly unlikely, but there is a political threat of cementing an atmosphere of mistrust in the region.

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The Crime-Politics Nexus Entrapping The Balkans

Author(s): / Language(s): English

In some of the countries of the Western Balkans, criminal groups and political elites have grown increasingly interdependent. In particular, Serbia’s and Montenegro’s societies have suffered the most from these links. The two countries have long been considered frontrunners in the EU integration process, whose final completion, however, is difficult to foresee. Similarly, Albania’s EU negotiating process has also been delayed for years, in part because of the country’s role in global drug trafficking schemes. The crime-politics nexus is contributing to the erosion of the rule of law in several Balkan countries, where the risk – or reality – of state capture is increasingly worrisome. In light of recent events, Serbia appears to be the most concerning case as its authoritarian drift currently seems hard to reverse. Which consequences does the situation in Serbia have on other Balkan countries? What impact does state capture have on regional stability? And what is changing for the region’s integration prospects with the EU?

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Protection of Public Interest by Legal Means – Judgment of the Administrative Court in the “Cable Car” Case

Author(s): Jovana Rajić,Marko Popović / Language(s): English

On 12 February 2021, the Administrative Court issued the judgment concerning the lawsuit that was filed by the Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and Environment (RERI), in which it approved the plaintiff’s request and annulled the building permit for the construction of a cable car terminal in Kalemegdan. The Court accepted the arguments of the plaintiff (RERI) and annulled the decision (building permit) of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, returning the case to the competent first instance body for retrial.

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Attacks on Civil Society Activists and Organizations in Serbia in 2020

Author(s): Bojana Selaković / Language(s): English

Lack of institutional dialogue has led to a deepening of the political crisis in Serbia, which has been recognised by international organisations such as the European Parliament, the European Commission and other organisations dealing with the protection and promotion of human rights. Such an environment has also contributed to the further polarisation of society, the spread of inflammatory and discriminatory rhetoric, and the rise of extremism due to the lack of action of the competent state authorities. These trends have inevitably affected all civil society organisations, regardless of the range of values they represent.

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Covidocracy – An Analysis of Narratives About the Pandemic in the Function of Capturing the State

Author(s): Jelena Pejić Nikić,Srđan Hercigonja / Language(s): English

Although the analysis covers the entire year 2020 and the beginning of 2021, the greatest attention was given to the state of emergency in the spring of 2020. The construction of the narrative was facilitated in the conditions of excessive presence of government representatives in the media, at almost daily press conferences, addresses to the nation, and numerous appearances of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, doctors from the government’s Crisis Response Team and several ministers on television. In addition, access to authentic information on the consequences of the pandemic was largely denied to the public. In that narrative, the holders of power, the President of the Republic in particular, were presented as skillful and dedicated saviors of the citizens from the plague. The elderly population, the functionality of the healthcare system and the economy took turns as priorities (victims) that needed to be protected.

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Murder of the Law – No Justice for Mountain Rivers

Author(s): Not Specified Author / Language(s): English

On 15 August 2020, activists from all parts of Serbia have gathered in the vicinity of the village of Rakita and removed part of the pipeline of the mini hydro power plant “Zvonce” (“Little Bell”) on the Rakita River. This was one of the largest initiatives of environmental activists (as well as other citizens interested in environmental protection) in the last few years in Serbia. The action was, in fact, a reflection of an increasing number of initiatives and movements that deal with endangered environment, and an increasing number of examples where investors endanger the environmental safety, both of citizens and beyond. In order to fully understand how and why the construction of MHPPs on the Rakita River became a national-level topic, the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy – in cooperation with the movement “Let’s Defend the Rivers of Stara Planina [Old Mountain]” – developed a case study to better understand the context, activities and problems that led to the “Rakita issue” becoming a topic that attracted the attention of a large number of citizens of the Republic of Serbia.

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International Mechanisms for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Author(s): Katarina Golubović / Language(s): English

This guidebook serves activists to recognise themselves as human rights defenders, to find out what minimum rights of defenders are guaranteed at the international level, and to obtain information on the addresses and ways in which the international community provides them with support and protection.

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Don’t Talk to Me about Democracy while I’m Guarding Kosovo – analysis of narratives used to capture the state

Author(s): Maja Bjeloš,Bojan Elek / Language(s): English

This analysis has shown the mechanism by which the Serbian authorities, by controlling and strategically using narratives on resolving the Kosovo dispute, manage to increase their own discretionary powers while simultaneously abolishing control mechanisms. In other words, under the pretext of resolving the Kosovo issue, the separation of powers and democratic decision-making are being abolished, leading to an even greater level of state capture.

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Whistleblowers in Serbia

Author(s): Vuk Z. Cvijić / Language(s): English

The path of whistleblowers in Serbia is difficult as, instead of receiving the support of state institutions, they are often exposed to the persecution of those who are formally charged with their protection. Examples of completed court proceedings that were initiated based on whistleblowers’ reports are very rare. In the few such cases, the reported officials did not suffer any serious consequences, and no one has ever been convicted in cases where whistleblowers’ disclosures involved higher-ranking government officials. There are also no examples of absence of resistance to whistleblowers, regardless of whether they provided information on corruption of local inspectors related to parking fines, or that of ministers in relation to arms trafficking. They suffered mobbing, professional degradation, and were in most cases finally dismissed.

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Protection of whistleblowers in the security sector

Author(s): Sofija Mandić / Language(s): Serbian

Serbia provided legal protection for whistleblowers for the first time when it adopted the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers in 2014. This protection is exercised in special court proceedings. The Law was adopted on 25 November 2014 and its implementation began on 5 June 2015. The explanation that accompanied the Draft Law made it clear that it was adopted to fulfil the international recommendations and meet the obligations of the Republic of Serbia, primarily those prescribed by the acts of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. The Law regulates whistleblowing, the whistleblowing procedure, the rights of whistleblowers, the obligations of state and other authorities and organisations, legal entities and natural persons related to whistleblowing, as well as other issues of importance for whistleblowing and the protection of whistleblowers.

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