Stephen Wordsworth

Good news for Serbia’s EU integration process

On Friday 2 October I signed a Memorandum of Understanding  between the British and Serbian Governments, under which Britain's Department of International Development (DFID) will fund a programme of assistance to help strengthen the coordination capacity of the Serbian Government's General Secretariat (the cost of the programme is around 700,000 euros).   Ms Tamara Stojcevic, General Secretary, signed for Serbia.  Prime Minister Cvetkovic and a Director of DFID from London were also there; both made short speeches, welcoming the agreement and looking forward to the implementation of the programme. 

It all sounds a bit dull, but the ability to coordinate the Government's work effectively is absolutely essential for EU integration, as much of the preparation work for EU membership is very complex and covers all the different areas of Government activity.  

Then on 3 October we got the good news that the voters of Ireland had voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty in their referendum, which removes one important obstacle and brings the day closer when that treaty will come into effect.  This is good news for countries like Serbia, as a further rejection would inevitably have caused a lot of confusion in the EU. 

Now we need to find a way to help Serbia move forward with its own integration process. I have said before that we feel that Serbia has shown real determination to resolve the issue of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, and that the EU should recognise this by moving forward now with the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement that was signed last year.

Posted at 10:00 05 October 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth  |  Comments[2]

"Acknowledgements for the Best in 2008"

I was invited by Minister Ljajic to attend a ceremony to receive an award - "Acknowledgements for the Best in 2008" on 18 December.  It honoured the work that has been done here by the Embassy team from the UK's Department for International Development, to support the social welfare network in Serbia.  Two other Embassies were also honoured, and my colleagues from Japan and Norway were there to get their awards too.  So were a number of representatives of Serbian institutions, and several individuals. 

It was a happy occasion, and it's nice to think that the work that we and others have been doing has been noticed.  We all have social problems in our countries - individuals and families who, for whatever reason, need support, and may go on needing it throughout their lives.  So it's really important for us to work together, to share experiences and see how we can help each other.

Posted at 20:33 20 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth  |  Comments[1]

Good News from Down South

Last night I hosted a small reception in Belgrade to mark the successful completion of a project we have been funding for over two years in the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.  The project supported the development of local Municipal Safety Councils.  These meet regularly, in public, to bring together all those who are involved in the battle against crime, violence and discrimination.  They have consulted citizens about what worries them, developed plans for tackling the problems that have been raised, obtained funding for these activities, and reported on the progress they have achieved.  Among many other things, they have developed plans to combat corruption, to campaign against drug abuse, to promote child safety and to develop cooperation and integration among the various communities.  Now they are sufficiently well established that they can continue their work without our direct support. 

Leaders from all three municipalities were there.  It was good to see them again and to hear their news, as I had met all of them before on visits to the region.  I first got involved in the South Serbia region when I was working in London, as Head of the Department in the Foreign Office dealing with the Western Balkans from 1999-2002.  Then, our concern was to prevent violence spreading into the region from Kosovo, in the immediate aftermath of the Kosovo conflict.  With good cooperation among the international community, and from the Serbian authorities, we succeeded, and there has been a lot of progress since then.  The region is still very poor, with very high unemployment.  But everyone I talked to tonight felt that things were going the right way.

Posted at 14:22 11 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth  |  Comments[2]

Hats in the air!

Friday 5 December: Another trip, another project - this time to attend the passing-out parade at the Police Basic Training Centre in Sremska Kamenica. 

The British Council, with Embassy funding, have been working with the Interior Ministry to encourage candidates from Serbia's many different national communities to put themselves forward for the police entrance exam, and to support them through the application process.  We have worked with the Centre to produce advertisements and materials in Albanian, Hungarian, Romanian, Roma, Ruthenian, Slovak, Bulgarian and Croatian, as well as in Serbian. 

It seems to be working - the proportion of applications from minority community members is up this year.  The thinking behind it all is simple - in a democratic society, effective policing needs the consent and cooperation of the whole community, and to get that you have to have good representation of all groups. 

It's a lesson we have learned in the UK.  We haven't achieved complete success there yet, by any means, but we know what needs to be done and we're sharing that experience now here in Serbia. 

The ceremony itself was really uplifting, with proud parents, brothers and sisters crowding around, a band playing, marches and folk dancing, and all the newly-graduated cadets throwing their hats into the air.  I wonder if they ever get the right ones back?  Then at the end I was given a good-bye gift of a picture of a policeman, drawn by a 6-year old Art Workshop pupil - here it is 

and it's now on our Embassy wall!

Posted at 19:56 08 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth  |  Comments[0]

Moj prvi blog

It's been a busy period, and so it is a good time to launch a blog!

The biggest item on my recent agenda has been the process of getting agreement to the launch of EULEX (the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) throughout Kosovo. 

On the one hand, Belgrade wanted EULEX to have UN Security Council approval, and for it to be status-neutral, with no link to the plan of the UN Status Envoy, President Ahtisaari.  On the other, Pristina were insistent that EULEX should be based firmly on its Constitution.  We got agreement in the end, building on the fact that the EU as an organisation has no position on Kosovo status, since not all member states have recognised Kosovo's independence. 

If the EU has no position, the presence of an EU Mission, which all its members - recognisers and non-recognisers alike - have authorised, cannot confer status either way.  And with Security Council approval for the UN Secretary General's report, the mission is launched. 

Its task is important - to improve the standard of law and order throughout Kosovo.  Once it gets started we hope that even those who were opposed to it will come to see that it is in the interests of all communities.

Apart from that I have been out of the office a lot, mainly in connection with a series of projects we have been working on here:

• the 5th anniversary celebration of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights

• a ceremony to celebrate the successful conclusion of a project

• a press conference with Minister Ljajic on our support for programmes for particularly vulnerable groups

On the same evening as the press conference I was in Novi Sad for the opening of a British section in the city library.  My wife read a story in English to some 40 children of around 8 to 10 years old.  They all seemed to enjoy the story, and the cakes she brought with her.  As always I am left enormously impressed with the standard of spoken English among people here, including the very young.  I then went on to help the British Council launch their portfolio of booklets in Serbian, aimed at helping people to understand how to help disabled people take their proper place in society.  It's a big and important area; every society defines itself by how it treats its weakest members.  We have had some really good cooperation with local organisations here in Serbia; there is some good progress.

That's it for the moment - and in future I shall try to blog more often, and to make my entries shorter.  But if you want to comment on any of this, or on anyting else to do with the United Kingdom's work here, just add your comments! There’s more about me on my about page.

Posted at 13:21 05 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth  |  Comments[17]