14 January, 2012

VISITING PIROT AND BELA PALANKA ON MONDAY 16, 2012

On Monday, January 10th of this year, I will visit Pirot and Bela Palanka which will initiate my planned tour of Serbia. In Pirot, first I will discuss with Mayor Vladan Vasić the current situation and the problems facing this municipality. I will also have a meeting with the leadership of “Tigar” Corporation, as well as with representatives of the largest companies in the Pirot District. The main topics of discussion will be the impact of the economic crisis on business in Serbia, projections of economic developments in 2012, with reference to the situationin the EU and possibilities for financing the industry. At the end, I will visit the Handicraft Society for making rugs and souvenirs "Ladies Heart". After visiting Pirot, I will visit “PavleFootwear” in BelaPalanka, in order to see how one successful family firm functions in Serbia. The main objective of these visits, and future ones, is to meet the citizens more closely and to see their specific problems in order to formulate concrete measures for improvement of the current situation and a better future for Serbia.

6 January, 2012

Božidar Djelić while visiting the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

SERBIA IS BECOMING AN ASSOCIATED MEMBER OF CERN

Upon the invitation of the Director General of CERN, prof. Rolf-Dieter Heuer and the Serbian negotiation team for CERN accession, I will be attending on January 10th of this year the official signing ceremony of the Agreement between the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Republic of Serbia concerning the granting of the status of associate membership as the pre-stage to membership at CERN. The Agreement will be on behalf of Serbia signed by prof. Žarko Obradović, Minister of Education and Science, and the President of the Republic of Serbia Boris Tadić, will attend the ceremony.

Serbia’s accession to CERN was initiated on March 4th, 2009 when I, as the Minister of Science and Technological Development, sent a letter of intent to the Director General. Following the DG’s visit to Serbia on May 9th, 2009 Serbia delivered its pre-accession report to CERN regarding the state of science and Serbia with a special focus on physics and particle physics. A special CERN committee analyzed the report and following their recommendations the CERN Council decided to initiate formal negotiations with Serbia on December 17th, 2010. A year later, negotiations were successfully concluded.

Associate membership in CERN will allow Serbia to increase its scientific participation in the largest research endeavor in history. Besides science, this new status will enable Serbia to benefit from CERN’s educational programs and Serbian industry will be able to participate, in equal terms, in all tenders published by this international organization.