12. 01. 2015

PM's row with "EU-paid liars" condemned by NGO

12.1.2015 (Beta, B92) - BELGRADE -- The CEAS NGO has accused Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic of treating the voters irresponsibly by engaging in a controversy with representatives of the EU.

The Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies (CEAS) said in a statement that Vucic's accusations "at the expense of an active diplomat of the European Union" in fact represent "an insult to the institution he represents."

It is "all the more surprising," the statement added, that the prime minister said during a news conference on Friday, "Tell those liars that they have lied again."

Vucic accused the publication BIRN of "getting money" from the EU and Michael Davenport, who heads the EU Delegation in Serbia, and that they published untruths about the procedure of selecting the company which would pump water out of the Tamnava - West Field (Zapadno Polje) strip coal mine.

The publication ran the report under the headline, "Pumping Out the Mine and the Budget," and claimed that Serbia's power company EPS had hired a consortium without experience to dry the Kolubara Mine, thus raising the price of the work considerably, the Beta agency reported.

Spokeswoman for the European Union in Maja Kocijancic said that the European Union "strongly rejected Vucic's baseless claims" that the EU pays certain organizations to run campaigns against the Serbian government.

"We are very much surprised by the recent claims by Serbian (Prime Minister) Vucic. The EU stands by independent and courageous journalism and freedom of speech across Europe and beyond. Freedom of expression is a basic principle of democracy," she stressed.

After this, Vucic accused Kocijancic of acting on behalf of the EU and trying to silence him.

"Serbia supports independent and daring journalism, and freedom of speech throughout Europe and beyond, and that freedom of expression is a fundamental democratic principle. That's just why I am astonished by the fact that Maja Kocijancic is trying to shut me up on behalf of the EU, to forbid me even to reply to journalist's questions," said a statement issued by Vucic.

He asked Kocijancic and Davenport whether they were attempting to "ban him from letting the Serbian public know" that those being paid by the EU "are not telling the truth."

"Is the freedom of sundry words permitted to you, but the freedom of expression and the truth is not permitted to us, mere mortals?" Vucic asked.

He then noted that he was "just the plain prime minister of a geographically small country, while Mrs. Kocijancic and Mr. Davenport are big and important officials of the EU," and that he did not think that his answer to a reporter's question during a press conference "could cause such rage of the powerful and important people. "