inventors entrepreneurs and high tech professionals talk about their visions successes and day to day business in. its. history in the everyone. says they have to push for. digital africa starts december twelfth w. subir is pushing ahead with moves to join the european union but brussels is so far unimpressed with its reforms my guest this week visiting by alain is the serbian prime minister and not burn a bridge why so little progress on so many key issues. prime

minister anna boden of which welcome to conflicts i thank you very much thanks for inviting one of the conditions for serbia joining the e.u. is that you signed a legally binding agreement on peaceful relations with kosovo which declared its independence in two thousand and eight you've never recognize that these talks come and go sometimes they're on sometimes they're off why should the e.u. bother with all this feuding and bilateral disputes that you have with costs of oil have too much trouble for the. i think as much as our interest is to join the e.u. i think the a large amount to cover balkans is also in the news interest i think first and foremost european union is a peace project and it's a successful one because we have for the first time in history a long term peace in europe would you say that because they know you have made it clear haven't they they cannot and will not import bilateral disputes junko dunker

said it last year that's pretty clear isn't it because it's clear they're not going to point to a dispute with constable it is absolutely clear if you don't settle it that you're not going to get you know that it's normal to me i think that's just natural thing to do i would ask that if i were the e.u. as well so you're not going to settle this any time soon you've admitted that yourself so there's not really no perspective for you joining in the foreseeable future i would one hundred percent disagree with you on that point because firstly the the soonest possible date for us to join the e.u. is twenty twenty five so by twenty twenty five i think there is a possibility that we actually signed a long term normalization agreement with breached really it doesn't look like it at the moment but i'm not saying that this will happen i'm saying that serbia is committed to it it doesn't depend on serbia alone depends also on preached in our as well as on other allies of ours so i think we're going into that in the

direction of the e.u. for me what's important is that we actually implement all the reforms so that as a society politically economically we become fit for the e.u. yeah but you say that i want to come on to those reforms were along a little bit because the e.u. as far from happy with the state of your reforms but last week my who i would also disagree with that profile growth will go through digital well go through it really into. india large one strategy the e.u. clearly identified serbia and montenegro as frontrunners are would say that is far from being this. disappointed by the run for answers but he is getting fed up with the un at the sofia summit in may and later in london there was a pretty lukewarm attitude to all six balkan countries looking to join the e.u.

no mention of any timetable for accession and some pretty clear opposition from the french president emanuel markram wasn't that clear opposition only let me just say i do not think that you have the right to say that you use fed up with us i don't think it's diplomatic but i don't think you can say that on behalf of the e.u. if look what you what mark riley said. was fed up with us. then we would not have any new chapters so and and we do have new chapters being constantly opened and that the trend is that we are going towards the e.u. well that's not a role it is a president micro who said what we've seen over the past fifteen years is a path that has weakened europe every time we think of enlarging it and i don't think we do a service to the count of countries or ourselves by having a mechanism that in a way no longer has rules and keeps moving towards more enlargement and though that

was hardly welcoming you with both the rosary and i agree with president mccrone one hundred percent i do not think that enlargement in the past was particularly successful i think the likely to be with you can do anything at all lightly with you and i think that the consequence of that kind of accession to the e.u. is that the country whose accessing the e.u. is weaker because its economy cannot compete its agriculture cannot compete they suffer from a huge brain drain and the e.u. gets weaker so why don't you put your membership on hold stop taking the funds and sort out the bilateral problems with kosovo you know the other refer to them in our membership in four hundred how many fund how much money do you get from your you know you are getting hundreds of millions and we are getting much less than that we are getting pretty accession funds and the pre accession funds are exactly smaller than for the funds that the e.u. member states are getting but you've given the impression that you're in it just

for the money and that's and that is completely that is completely not right you really have the president your president then you think himself just if i can just say or you can have your interview with yourself if i can just say something firstly we've always said to our citizens that we cannot and will not look at towards the e.u. as a pot of money that the. that the better quality of life the jobs better salaries need to come from ourselves and the strength of our economy that we want to be part of the e.u. because units of peace project and we have shared values with the e.u. so if that's true why did president who cheats three years ago when he was prime minister make it clear when he told a meeting into rana we are fed up with seminars we need some money from the e.u. funds then you see the smiles on our faces that would be

a clear indication that he was simply after the money would say that you took out the statement if it's correct and i do not remember that it is a directive of the revolution on multiple news lately args of the context if anything president for to as the prime minister repeated li said e.u. is not a pot of money for us we need to take of take care of our own economy our jobs our infrastructure the e.u. is a different goal for serbia now whether we're going to be ready by twenty twenty five to join the e.u. is another question and i think if you ask me if the e.u. said you can join tomorrow i'd say no because we're not ready which would which would mean that again we get in a large amount in which serbia would be worse off and europe would be worse or very very canny and horrible ironworker trysted in the reforms themselves when it comes

when it comes to course of our promise to you keep raising the bar to you now say that any final deal will have to be comprehensive it will have to include among other things human rights minority rights economic cooperation learning each other's language and cultural heritage you settle this in the recent through to the house that raising the bar is going to take a long time twenty years at least why should the. you wait around for the who says that you will wait around for that if it takes twenty years of your sleeve we want to join the e.u. who says that you will wait around who's asking the e.u. to wait you are you continuing with your membership application and you but of course so you wanted to wait around but of course because we want to become members of the e.u. but i am more interested in the reforms once we implemented reforms the e.u. will come as a natural call the consequence of these reforms if they want to wait for and that's fine if they don't want to wait around that's all that is fine to assume that that

will not change europe or not mind whether they wait around or that they will not change. serbian policy is a little bit we are what we're doing in terms of the reforms we're doing first and foremost because of our own citizens and our businesses for the quality of life of citizens in serbia ok well let's talk about let me just tell i'm not real you see auntie to understand what the e.u. is for us firstly the reforms in our e.u. accession parth mean that we have strong stable economy that we have we implemented structural reforms that will lead to strong stable economy what about monetary rights and press freedom things largely at the minute but about the first real issue let me finish i'll come to that the second pillar is efficient transparent public and public administration the third pillar is the rule of law more stronger more independent but also more efficient and more accountable judiciary talk about

press freedom one of the most glaring failures of your government has been your refusal to protect freedom of speech in february the council of europe's human rights commission said the atmosphere in which journalists work in serbia appears to have deteriorated quite seriously especially with the smear campaigns against journalists with somebody or titian's calling them traitors foreign agents and mercenaries you have denied that any of this is the case but europe isn't buying your denials as. well firstly i see that there is a freedom of media in serbia i see no smear campaigns again i just i see criticism . of the president of myself of the government every single day in the media as it should be what about the very. democratic society from mr let me give you an example alexander mcqueen of a senior official of your ruling progressive party he labeled the head of the

independent journalists association a voyage void into and enemy of serbia because he made critical comments about the authorities is that acceptable is an enemy of serbia i'm not saying that it's acceptable for me or say it doesn't happen well for one thing i'm saying that there is a media freedom and in serbia i'm saying that the there is me and there certainly as a result in which journalists work in serbia appears to have deteriorated quite obviously there are some of these really do not agree with that in serbia i think we're makes it up listen in serbia. about ten years ago or a little bit over the over the when we actually had a democratically the macross tickle you oriented political party in power the members of the ruling coalition kicked physically kicked journalists. the if the so you think is untrue i'm another john threatened now they're going after the anti corruption council so the media is completely politically influenced i

think we have a lot to deal with in serbia and we are dealing with it and i think the situation is improving it's by no means by no means worse than in last night's event last month an official from the security information agency that marco resigned the rich so the greatest threat to serbia of a foreign agents working in media nongovernmental agencies and opposition parties it's an easy smear isn't it talk about foreign agents in the media when you have no evidence for that what it is absolutely ridiculous to quote one public servant at the conference where the president of serbia talked about threats and i'd talked about threats and you have the president and the prime minister talking about about threats which is migration terrorism cyber security and cost of and the thought here and no one is quoting that the actual official policy of serbia has never i

haven't said so you can immediately say no not given this is all taken out of context in his latest i think that you had two of the highest official of of serbia saying what the threats are and everyone disregarding this just so that someone can take words of one single public servant prime minister in family with a case in its latest report in april the european commission said the fact that no progress had been made to safeguard freedom of expression was a matter of increasing concern that was in april serbian north already said the commission need to provide active support to independent bodies human rights defenders and independent journalists and promptly react to and publicly condemn the threats. against them so why don't you do what the commission ask you to of done exactly the thing that the commission asked me to do and we're very sorry you

have and thank you so much over to the let's see let's see the upcoming report thank you for that question actually in fact as the prime minister i searched on with all the media representatives talk to them about how what we can do to come up with a credible media strategy they've asked me for me personally to run this the working group are actually in my cabinet in my team and not under the minister of culture and information that we have the working group. to work on the media strategy this is exactly what we're doing right now with the support of the european commission that is the european delegation in serbia. the corner of the stiff tongue the oil sea and the region embassy in serbia ok and this and also the medium of carrying through to europe this is the route to your you will see in the next really in the upcoming early port and and all sorts of remembering

all from asia where we see improvements there and well also of course really because we have in the meantime i was not going well either resident if i can just not going well either if you know it's going really well really so i'll tell you also the media representatives ours that we have equal donation body also under my cabinet as the prime minister which will in parallel with media strategy work on resolving adhoc issues that media have in serbia we've agreed to that as well we are doing that they meet once a month and they are already resolving issues if you want to you know i was my government is the first government to actually implement the open data policy we have we have we are doing that together and like i mentioned earlier we have adopted the parliament has adopted law the law in the government which makes opening data in serbia i understand that earlier this year the pound is

a lot of euro seems to me that you do understand i understand what you're saying but the disagrees with it and so does the council of europe and the human rights commission who complained in his report earlier this year that things with regard to access to information are not going well the government is not implementing the recommendations of the commissioner for information of public importance and the parliament is not discussing his reports you want to continue down this road because they're not buying your denials of this. i'm not saying that these are denials the. so much work to be done and i'm saying gus said i said yesterday. at the conference of konrad adenauer stiffed them i think if we look at our you integration in three key pillars economy public administration rule of law by far the most was done in the economy i would say in terms of structural reforms eighty five percent of the job has been done which is shown in the numbers that serbia has

right now our g.d.p. growth in this year was four point five percent our our employment coughed our. we are the world leaders in the our attraction in terms of public administration really for public pub probably fifty percent of the job has done still a long way to go in terms of the rule of law thirty percent has been done so we have a long long way to go you have a long way to go on the issue of war crimes as well but the e.u. is still not satisfied with you perform well in you you are certainly not one hundred percent satisfied with our progress and one hundred pas now would say that serbia by far is the best case example in the region of how to deal with the war crimes really value in january twenty sixth in the may twenty seventh in serbia had no formally appointed war crimes prosecutor and that's not for seventeen months and that's the that was that was a way of showing your willingness to deal with this and there's nothing no interest that you can you can absolutely disregard everything that serbia has been doing.

with respect to the war crimes since two thousand since the last eight hundred years ok and the last of the hundred are live in florida most of all other countries in the according to the great action plan for a trip to twenty three of the e.u. application five additional deputy prosecutor should have been appointed by the end of the twenty seventeen why we're. if you are doing everything you need to do. well to be honest i don't know the answer to that question but we've appointed them now and i have to say that you know you have you know priorities first and serbia literally four years ago was three months away from bank bankruptcy which goes to say that we really had to focus all of our effort all of our strength on very difficult very unpopular economic reforms you cannot do everything at the same

time so far there's been no indictments against senior military or police officials for war crimes there are currently fifteen cases ongoing the majority involve low ranking military or police defendants what's the deal of a higher ups the senior officers get away with it in the lower ones take the prosecutions as fact that i do bill i. do not agree with you and again i think that serbia has done by far the most still you know still there is a job to be done but i think that serbia and i am absolutely proud with how serbia has handled our issues from the past are you are you proud of the trend in serbia that the points to to see former war criminals as heroes or role models do you subscribe to knowing to not i do not i think you know we see in other countries in the region that the war criminals actually more or indicted war criminal sexually have official that all says advisors to the presidents or in the government you

know we have we see some being even the prime ministers but in serbia you do not have those kind of things you have the millers out of it for instance convicted for crimes against ethnic albanians because it over because of the wanted lecture at the serbian military academy not he was convicted he served his sentence he was released his in serbia now he was one time a lecture just like. at the military academy or if i'm nor if i'm not mistaken on what was the call but. during the middle nato bombing campaign over serbia so he's not appointed to lecture at the military i made her last scene of each convicted of similar acts later be appointed to his own position as a member of the executive council of the serbian socialist party happy with that that is serbian socialist party has nothing to do with the government is nothing to do we do official functions your hundreds of little serbia really have been

a tie in into public life and so these people. these what what do you want to do with these people if they were convicted serve their sentence do you and who are released do you want us to love them up in serbia so they can not show their faces i'm going to sit in parliament like voiceless for instance what voiceless fashion i remember says he's proud of all the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were i will remind you i will remind you while talking about the whole of law and voice of session handed himself to the hague tribunal voluntarily had thirteen years thirteen years trial is that what you call who love law and was then acquitted came back to serbia and then. overturned this year it was overturned it

was overturned but thirteen years is all your sentence by and that's free because of time so of course of course this still whole all him at least three years of his life. their money or step on or is there are also on the money a stepparent of it from the center for humanitarian law in belgrade serbia has not moved an inch from the time when the wars were being forged in the one nine hundred ninety s. as one after another war criminals are released and give a serve given a ceremonial reception by the government on their return they are being ushered back into public institutions he said i'm just telling you that that's not true so he can say what he does it doesn't know what he's talking about i disagree with him so and to say that serbia hasn't done anything is unbelievable i didn't say i haven't done anything i said in the off according to the e.u. as i'm done enough ok perhaps we can do more and and we will to ensure

the rule of law in serbia and to and to deal with the past and turn towards the future serbia will do its part but i would actually caution everyone not to really look at serbia alone but to also look at what other countries in the region are doing does doing what's expected of it for you include acknowledging that the massacre at srebrenica in one thousand nine hundred ninety five was genocide you were asked in may last year by the council of ministers a council of europe to recognize srebrenica as genocide you've never done are you prepared to do that no i do not think that the terrible crime massacre in stratford itself was a genocide you must know that unless you take this that the chances of you joining me are opinion is very slim and i know i don't know the. we know because it was

a huge use crime it was a war crime i am not happy because of it it wasn't done in the name of serbian people and serbian cannot serve serbs cannot be called actively. be blamed for what happened there two courts the international criminal tribunal for tribunal for the former yugoslavia an international court of justice both ruled that it was genocide. and you won't accept it i do not think it was a chance cite your rewriting history and you trying to rewrite history i do not think it was a genocide i think it was but let me just say it seems like you know you know i think it was it was a terrible terrible crime but genocide is basically when you are genocide is when you are you know killing the entire population the women children and this was not the case in two thousand and four the presiding

judge of the criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia said by seeking to eliminate a part of the bosnian muslims the bosnian serb forces committed genocide they targeted for extinction the forty thousand bosnian muslims living in srebrenica a group which was emblematic of the bosnian muslims in general that's why it was labeled genocide. and if you can't if you if you can't accept it why should my mishap think it was a terrible crime serbia delivered the person who was charged with that more crime we've delivered that person he was on trial he's in jail but you won't accept the step which the council of europe asks you to accept that it was a genocide yeah i'm telling you it was about your red line is it i'm telling you

you're never going to do it i told you my answer. i miss them i live for the bitch thank you very much you know. the be. the girl. the the. the be the be. the the.

the the. the the. the the the the. the the. leg. scars cover the mortgage the women russia has to live a little sexism depression. where freakin speech. women's rights are already getting traction one hundred years ago but there are women who want to instigate. for justice.

under the skin. fifteen people. who have been fighting for the case taking seriously in the world know what here's what's coming up women's tour. for here are. smart talks smart station and legend frank recently dangerous times are for w. me for money. they make a commitment. they find solutions. they inspire. africa on the move. the stories of both people making a difference shaping their nation. and their continent of africa on the

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a study class was the response to that statement should be yes we are starting class walk here because we're tired. and disrupt an economy the bridge look and the truth an exclusive report starts november seventeenth the g.w. . british prime minister theresa may says she has secured the support of her top cabinet ministers for her deal with the e.u. the breakthrough came after more than five hours of discussions so now i have to explain and defend the deal to the british parliament on thursday u.k. officials a many many.