Price of Jeremic UN Post Causes Anger in Serbia

One of the tasks of Serbia's new government will be deciding how to secure funds from the state budget to finance the UN office of Vuk Jeremic during his presidency of the General Assembly, Balkan Insight has learned from the government.

On June 8, Jeremic, Foreign Minister under the outgoing Democrat-led government, became the first Serb to preside over the General Assembly for a year.

The post is mainly of a technical nature but it still carries a certain degree of prestige and responsibility.

Last week, Serbia's outgoing government passed a regulation that envisions establishing an office for monitoring the activities of the General Assembly during Jeremic's presidency.  

The problem is that under UN rules, published on the website of the world organization, the total cost of the presidency of the UN, including the chairman's salary, comes from his or her country of origin.

Media have since reported that the amount that Serbia will have to stump up could exceed 7 million US dollars.

This has stirred controversy at a time when Serbia is facing a grave economic crisis, with an unemployment rate of 24 per cent and avarage monthly salaries of only 350 euro.

Dragan Djilas, deputy president of the Democrats, said it would be disgraceful for the government to approve 7 million dollars for the post at such a time.

"In a country in which there is not enough money even for the most vulnerable, and where incubators for babies have to be purchased through humanitarian actions, spending so much money for a year in New York is outrageous," Djilas told the daily newspaper Blic.

The Foreign Ministry has announced that final budget for the one-year chairmanship of the UN is yet to be defined and sent to the new government for adoption. The office would operate within General Secretariat of the Serbian Government.

During the election campaign in April, all major parties in Serbia advocated cuts in public sector and the closure of a number of government agencies.