EDITORIAL
CONTENTS
Who are Serbian Erin Brockovich's? At the beginning of the month, we held the sixth Digital Conference in Belgrade. For two days, 11 panels and 10 presentations took place and close to 80 participants from across the region spoke to over 500 people in the audience. One of the panels was led by Jovana Gligorijević from Vreme magazine and it was titled "Erin Brockovich, Model 4.0: Social Networks and Civil Initiatives". The panelists were Marija Lukić from Brus, Milan Antonijević from the Open Society Foundation, Sofija Todorović from BIRN Hub who reacted strongly following the unfortunate event that happened in front of a bakery in Borča, Igor Jurić from the Tijana Jurić Foundation, Goran Miletić, Civil Rights Defender, Belgrade, and Aleksandar Jovanović from the Odbranimo Reke Stare Planine initiative. As an introduction to the panel discussion, Jovana said that she moderated many panels at our conferences but this was the first conference where she genuinely admired all the participants. Indeed, the stories of each panellist perfectly reflected the state of the society in which we live. What was particularly striking to me was what Aleksandar was saying. I think that the courage of the people who defend the rivers and streams on the Stara Planina, as well as in other parts of Serbia, deserves the respect and admiration of all of us. As expected, the latest panel - "Welcome to TwitterLand: Truths and Misconceptions about the Twitter Community, Its 'Leaders' and Their 'Subjects'" generated the biggest attention, while the debates about who was invited and why, who said what and who behaved in what way are taking place on the social media even as I am writing this article, which is seven days after the conference. It's incredible to think about how we even got to the place where any dialogue between people who don’t have the same opinions is considered a first-class sensation and is subjected to attacks on both sides. I want to continue to organize conferences at which the likes of the US Ambassador H.E. Kyle Scott, ministers Ružić and Djordjević, Olja Bećković, Slobodan Georgiev, Žaklina Tataović, Olivera Zekić, Jelena Trivan and Stanislava Pak will speak just like people spoke at this Digital Conference. I think it is the duty of all of us who organize events like this to have everyone attend (i.e. people whose actions are legal, people who are not convicted...) who mean something to the society and have a certain number of followers and supporters. Although well-liked by both sides, having ten like-minded people talk will get us nowhere.
06
WE WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT SERBIA TO JOIN THE EU DAVID McALLISTER
Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee
08
NEGOTIATING TO LEAVE THE EU IS NO EASIER THAN NEGOTIATING TO JOIN H.E. MICHAEL DAVENPORT
UK ambassador to Kuwait, former UK ambassador to Serbia and Head of EU Delegation in Belgrade
16
GOOD OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION Dr DAVID LANDSMAN
Chairman of British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce
20
A TRUE SCHOOL OF DEMOCRACY DRAGAN R. SIMIĆ
Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade
42
DIALOGUE BELONGS IN INSTITUTIONS MILAN ANTONIJEVIĆ
Director of the Open Society Foundation
52
BITEF IS A HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY WORLD THEATRE JELENA KNEŽEVIĆ
Executive Director of Bitef
ROBERT ČOBAN Director
www.diplomacyandcommerce.rs TANJA BANKOVIĆ
Editor in Chief
tanja.bankovic@color.rs
SANJA ŠOJIĆ Journalist
sanja.sojic@color.rs ”Color Media Communications” LTD, 21132 Petrovaradin, Štrosmajerova 3 TIN 107871532 • Matriculation number 20887303 · Phone: +381 21 4897 100 • Fax: +381 21 4897 126 Office: Vase Čarapića 3/IV/38, Belgrade • 011 4044 960
CIP - Katalogizacija u publikaciji Biblioteke Matice Srpske, Novi Sad 33 Diplomacy & Commerce / glavni i odgovorni urednik Žikica Milošević, 2016, br. 1 (mart)-.Novi Sad: Color Media Communications, 2016 - , -33cm Mesečno. ISSN 2466-3808 = Diplomacy & Commerce COBISS.SR-ID 303269895
ILIJA PETROVIĆ INDIGOCHILD Art director
indigochild.ilija@gmail.com
JOVANA MARKOVIĆ
Advertising manager
jovana.markovic@color.rs
NATAŠA NEŠIĆ
RUŽA RISTANOVIĆ
natasa.nesic@color.rs
ruza.ristanovic@color.rs
Advertising director
DRAGANA RADOVIĆ Advertising manager
dragana.radovic@color.rs
JELENA RANĐELOVIĆ
Magazine director
ROBERT ČOBAN Director
robert.coban@color.rs
Photos
Advertising manager
GORAN ZLATKOVIĆ GETTY IMAGES
VANJA KOVAČEV
Translation SNEŽANA BJELOTOMIĆ
vanja.communications @gmail.com
ZLATNA KNJIGA
jelena.randjelovic@color.rs
PR&Event support Nord Communications
Jagodina, Bagrdanski put bb
3