Serbia-Montenegro Marks First Anniversary

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - The creation of Serbia-Montenegro was meant to stop the final dissolution of Yugoslavia by keeping its last two republics together. But a year after its birth, the successor state to the Balkan federation appears a limited success.

There were high hopes when Serbia-Montenegro was created Feb. 4, 2003, under an EU-negotiated deal that created a country with two nearly sovereign republics loosely linked by a small, central administration.

The deal aimed to defuse a strong pro-independence movement in Montenegro and an emerging one in Serbia. Back then, the republics' leaders grudgingly pledged to rebuild joint institutions, a common market and run defense and foreign affairs together.

One year on, however, the republics cooperate very little, and separatists in both republics eagerly await 2006, when the EU-brokered deal allows for independence referendums.

"This has been a lost year," said Montenegro's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

While defense and foreign affairs are mostly run jointly, a common market remains an elusive goal - the republics have failed to fully harmonize taxes and customs rates for dozens of key agriculture products.

A common, Belgrade-based parliament has held just a few sessions, ratifying a few international treaties but failing to agree on a national flag, anthem, coat-of-arms and, most importantly, a joint court.

"The state created a year ago was stillborn," Serbia's Justice Minister Vladan Batic said. "It still has no common court, property issues remain unsolved, many (joint) institutions are not in place, let alone functional."

The EU, which has repeatedly urged the two republics to stick together if they want union membership anytime soon, still believes in the country, said the union's top representative in Belgrade, Geoffrey Barrett.

"The functioning of the state ... is absolutely germane to the whole process of the European integration," he said. "We remain totally convinced that the common state represents the fastest track."

Djukanovic disagreed, saying "it would have been better for the republics to opt for separate ways" toward the EU.

Serbians increasingly express similar frustrations.

Batic described the year-old country as a "failed experiment, a waste of time and energy" that has left Serbia paying for most common army and diplomatic missions abroad.

But Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic, argued the new country was making progress. Montenegro has increasingly relied on the joint foreign ministry, shutting down some of the separate diplomatic missions it opened as its relations to Serbia were at its lowest during the autocratic rule of former President Slobodan Milosevic.

The country's joint institutions are now mostly hindered by Serbia, Svilanovic said. The republic is plagued by a political deadlock following general elections in December that failed to produce a clear winner. Feuding parties have so far failed to create a new government.

Security is also at stake in a region traumatized by the wars of the 1990's.

"The very reason why EU got involved in this reformatting of the state was based, to considerable extent ... on awareness of security issues," Barrett said.

"We have to be extremely watchful and vigilant when it comes to anything which might give the impression that there is a risk of further fragmentation in this region."