Top events in Serbia in 2011

Ten events that marked the year of 2011 according to Tanjug news agency given in chronological order:

Ten events that marked the year of 2011 according to Tanjug news agency given in chronological order:

1.The Serbian government reshuffle
With the authority of the Democratic Party (DS) to back him up, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic decided on February 14 to stop the series of disputes and individual political actions taken by former economy minister and leader of G17 Plus Mladjan Dinkic, and to strengthen the unity and efficiency of his cabinet by dismissing certain ministers who openly opposed the government's fiscal and economic reform and achieved unsatisfactory results.

The government was formally reshuffled one month later, yielding changes in two key ministries, namely the Ministry of Economy where Dinkic was succeeded by Nebojsa Ciric, and the Ministry of Finance, which the Prime Minister himself took over from Diana Dragutinovic.

As a result, instead of entering a campaign for early elections, Serbia obtained time to adopt prevention measures against the new wave of economic crisis that both domestic and foreign analysts forecast for the coming year. The strategic importance of the survival of Mirko Cvetkovic's government exceeded the significance of the very personal and structural changes carried out within it.

2.Tomislav Nikolic's hunger strike
On April 16, President of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Tomislav Nikolic took the home and foreign public by surprise with the decision to stage a hunger strike.

The decision was preceded by multiple attempts of the newly-formed SNS to initiate early elections and thus capitalize its soaring popularity among the voters. The effect was, however, far from what was expected: there were no mass gatherings of dissatisfied citizens in support of Nikolic, EU politicians were unpleasantly surprised with the archaic move of a politician whom they started accepting as a newcomer in Serbia's pro-European bloc, and the Democrats recognized this act as continuation of radical political irrationalism.

Early elections did not take place, and as it turned out, contrary to the initial idea, Nikolic's hunger strike was a bubble in Serbia's political life which threatened to burst due to the pressure created by the rapid growth of SNS's popularity.

3.Mladic's arrest
On May 26, the news initially spread throughout the Belgrade media desks, and was later confirmed by President Boris Tadic, stating that the arrest of former commander of the Republika Srpska Army removed a taint from Serbia's reputation.

Besides closing an unpleasant chapter in cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the arrest of Ratko Mladic put an end to all doubts that Serbia does not wish to distance itself from its role in the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the 1990s wars.

Although the arrest and extradition of Mladic was expected to end the era of pressures on Serbia in the EU integration process, it turned out very soon that Serbia will need to overcome much higher obstacles on the EU pathway.

4.The Djokovic phenomenon
Novak Djokovic's climbing to the top of the ATP list on July 3 was one of the major sport events in the world, but the importance of the series of victories by Serbia's top tennis player went beyond 'white sport' in his home country.

In the year in which Serbia was more or less on a foreign policy defensive and was forced to transform its economic development policy into a policy of survival, Djokovic personified the awakened national energy and became the most influential Serbian ambassador.

Even though, the Serbian fans were not directly meritorious for his triumphs, Djokovic showed that he is a great man by insisting on his origin and by emphasizing Serbia's state symbols and thus allowing his victories to be the victories of all Serbs.

5.The crisis in northern Kosovo
It all began on July 25 with the attempt to deploy members of the Kosovo police special units at administrative crossings in northern Kosovo, whereby Pristina's rule would expand to the entire Kosovo, and the Serbs from the north would lose the possibility to insist on demarcation or federalization, owing to the situation on the ground and factual division

The result were several-month blockages of roads in northern Kosovo, conflicts between local Serbs and KFOR, and a large number of injured civilians and soldiers of international forces.

Even though the EU stated on several occasions that Brussels has nothing to do with the unannounced unilateral action of Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Taci, the crisis north of the Ibar River escalated precisely at the point when it was partly in the interest of the EU's most influential members for processes in Kosovo to move from a stalemate in a way which was unfavorable for Belgrade.

Even though Brussels was not directly involved, the EU took advantage of the barricades in northern Kosovo as a motive to openly present to Belgrade the requests for new concessions in the process of resolving the Kosovo issue, and the messenger was the chancellor of the most influential EU member state.

6. Visit of Angela Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Belgrade on August 23, at the moment when her country started acting, due to the escalation of the crisis in the euro-zone, as an unequivocal leader in the EU, and Germany's increasing political power and resoluteness could be felt in each segment of her message to Belgrade.

The Chancellor's tone was explicit and straightforward, and the message stirred the public as it hinted that the time was near when it would no longer be possible to regard the resolution of the Kosovo issue and the Euro-integration as two parallel processes.

Accompanied by Serbian President Boris Tadic, at a joint press conference, Merkel did not hesitate to say that Serbia was welcome in the EU but that the country needed to make progress in the dialogue with Pristina which would make it possible for EULEX to operate on the whole of Kosovo territory, and to abolish "parallel institutions" in northern Kosovo.

If the Serbian political scene had any dilemmas after her visit about how serious her Belgrade messages had been, today no one doubts Angela Merkel's words any more.

7. Ministerial meeting of Non-Aligned Countries
The two-day ministerial conference of Non-Aligned countries that was held in Belgrade early in September revived the memory of the most glorious days of Yugoslavia's diplomacy.
Several hundred diplomats of different race, some of them in colorful national costumes, stressed the need for reaffirming the Non-Aligned concept at the place where the movement was first founded a half a century ago.
The event was of minor political consequence, and Serbia, although it is an EU aspirant and does not define the Non-Aligned movement as one of its four foreign policy pillars, declared itself as being a traditional friend of the countries with which it could have a very fruitful cooperation in the future.

8. U-Turn
Two parties, whose cooperation was unthinkable only a couple of years ago due to their ideology, gathered in the U-Turn movement on December 5.

The coalition between two parties, one with republican orientation and the other pro-monarchist - the Liberal Democratic Party and the Serbian Renewal Movement - the first opposition party and the latter a member of the ruling coalition, stemmed from the need for redefining of Serbia's policy towards Kosovo which would move Serbia from the standstill in its Euro-Atlantic integrations.

The formation of the U-Turn codified the two parties' propagandas in the last three years, but the event also had a lasting importance announcing repositioning of the political scene in terms of the “both the EU and Kosovo” policy in the coming elections.

9. The EU Council and postponement of Serbia's EU candidate status
The event which is bound to have the most lasting influence in internal political relations in Serbia, as it usually happens, did not even take place in Serbia but in Brussels on December 9 when the EU Council decided to postpone the decision on Serbia's EU candidacy bid for March 2012.

Although the country had fulfilled all requests referring to the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and implementation of the agreements reached in the talks, which were presented by the European Commission in October, Serbia did not get the EU candidate status since there was no agreement on Kosovo's representation at regional forums.

According to Serbian officials, Belgrade was urged to abandon Resolution 1244 in the search for an answer to the issue of Kosovo' regional representation. In the meantime, a pre-Christmas visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Kosovo showed that Berlin is unwavering about the abolishment of the so-called parallel institutions i.e. the institutions of the Republic of Serbia in north Kosovo.

Official Belgrade stated that Resolution 1244 is a red line which cannot be crossed in disentangling the Kosovo knot, and today Serbian politicians speak about March with much reserve and without optimism. The session of the EU Council combined two political processes which were until that time separate - Kosovo and the EU integration process in a manner which left Serbia with little maneuvering room.

10. New Fiat model in Kragujevac
Just when the Serbian citizens stopped hoping that Fiat Kragujevac will ever launch the production of a long-awaited new model of family car, it was announced that first models of code named L 0 rolled down from the production line in the heart of Sumadija.

The assembling of the trial series kicked off two months before the information was released on December 12 in the presence of Serbia's top officials announcing that Fiat will premier its model at a car show in Geneva in March 2012.

Fiat-Chrysler Director for Business Development and Iveco CEO Alfredo Altavilla stated that the Kragujevac factory is planned to produce 50 cars per day as of May 2012. It is now almost certain that the U.S. will launch a mass import of cars from Kragujevac, but without a smirk that once welcomed Yugo 55.
Source http://www.emg.rs/en/emplus/171918.html