Letter to the European Community

Mr. Hans Van Den Brook
Commissioner
European Commission
Brussels

Dear Sir,

We are sorry that we have to address you in this manner, but the situation with  independent media in Serbia, which we represent, is very serious, almost desperate. That is due to a number of factors and one of them, unfortunately, is uncertainty regarding donations approved by the European Commission. For the sake of the quality of our business decisions, we are pleading for your urgent response as to when we can expect funds approved by your budget for fiscal years 1996 and 1997.
Representatives of independent media have signed, at the end of the last year, financing agreements relating to EC grants for fiscal year 1997.
We have now entered well into the second half of 1998 and most of us haven’t received a single ECU, not even of the first installment of the sum approved for fiscal year 1997. None of us has ever received the second and final installment, namely 60% of fiscal year 1996  approved and contractually determined European Commission financial assistance.

This puts us in great difficulties on the Yugoslav media market. The government here supports regime media in many ways, directly and indirectly, such as supplying them with newsprint at subsidized prices, tolerating their arrears in payments of taxes and telephone bills and allowing them to enter financial markets at privileged rates. The same benefits, usually through government controlled business and banks, are granted to some of the so-called private media. Only the independent media cannot count on such privileges and have to face an unequal battle, relaying on their sale. Meanwhile, people in Yugoslavia, who are getting poorer every day, can’t afford to buy newspapers.
Important support for independent media in the past several years has come through the contributions of foreign donors. Some of them have been very generous and this applies to the European Commission as well. We are sorry to say that the EU was, at the same time, the most unreliable. Long delays in delivery of funds, sometimes stretching into months, and even years after the dates promised in the Financing Agreements, signed by High Officials of the EC, did not allow us to make proper planning for our operations. Due to the fact that promised funds were not forthcoming, even with what could be considered a reasonable delay, we had to borrow money through the financial black market, as our only resort, at usurers interest rates which usually reach between ten and fifteen percent per month. (Yes, monthly.) In that way, even when some among us have finally received the long awaited funds from Brussels, most of it has already been eaten by exuberant interest rates.

We are trying to understand the difficulties of the EC, having to pay donations to too many independent media in the former Yugoslavia. But some of the practices could be straightened out, even without any investment. A lack of proper communication channels with the EC is a great obstacle for us, since there is no one who can give us proper information on the issue. The officials that we were addressing either do not have reliable information, or the dates they were mentioning were not kept. And when even the most firmly promised dates for payment pass, as happened by the end of July this year, in order to maintain our operations, we have to borrow under the most unfavorable conditions.

We have been encouraged by many statements coming from institutions and the most responsible political representatives of the European Union, insisting on the vital importance of democratic reforms in FRY and especially the crucial role of independent media in the preparations and execution of this long awaited process. Yet the practical experiences in the field of financial assistance seem to contradict those noble intentions. In the final analysis, such enormous delays, and our total disorientation regarding realistic and sound deadlines given that these delays can be expected for every single installment, can only facilitate the continuous pressures the authorities are applying against independent media of which we are a part.

Signed by:
Nasa Borba
Danas
Beta
Fonet
B-92
Vreme
Local press
Media centar

c/c
Mr. H.J. Kretschmer
Head of Unit 1A/d2
European Commission
Brussels

Mr. Michael Graham
Charge d`Affairs
Delegation of the European Commission in Belgrade