PUBLISHER PEACE AND CRISES MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION Dobračina Street No. 15/VII, Belgrade www.fondmir.com AUTHORS Participants at the Conference “There is no Way to Peace, Peace is the Way” Belgrade, 2012. FOR THE PUBLISHER Mirjana Prljević TRANSLATION Language Shop DESIGN & PREPRESS Marko Zakovski PRINT Printing Shop Futura PRINT RUN 500 pcs Belgrade, 2014 CONTENT FOREWORD .......................................................................................................................5 PART I REVIEWS ON THE PROPOSALS FOR A NEW COMMONWEALTH OF THE REPUBLICS OF ex-YugosLAVIA .............................................................................9 PART II ECONOMY AT WORK ........................................................................................................59 FINAL WORD ....................................................................................................................87 PHOTOGRAPHS ................................................................................................................89 CONFERENCE AGENDA ..................................................................................................100 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ....................................................................................................101 CONFERENCE THERE IS NO WAY TO PEACE, PEACE IS THE WAY When we started the initiative 20 years ago and published the Proposals for a New Commonwealth of the Republics of ex-Yugoslavia, before most as an option aiming to stop the wars on this territory, and then through economic cooperation aiming to restore trust and cooperation among people, however, this idea was observed as utopistic and unrealistic by many. At a first glance, when observed from a very superficial point of view, the sequence of events proved them right. Numerous lives were lost during these ten years of confrontations; hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes, whereas the damage has not yet been estimated. Nevertheless, we didn’t manage to stop the war in former Yugoslavia, but the war didn’t manage to stop us from working on a vision of peace and from giving our contribution to peace however we can as a peace organization in the civil sector. Our initiative has transformed into a Peace and Crises Management Foundation which endured as a non-governmental organization and as a visible bearer of changes throughout the years. The fact is that our initiative has gathered many eminent professionals: scientists, politicians, public officers, writers, journalists who have encouraged us and convinced us that we are doing the right thing. We knew that our work cannot be valued through a forum or any numerical indicator. We have consciously left our activities over to the judgement of time and we have listened to the voices of reason, no matter how desolate and silent they were. Today, twenty years later, we are still on the same road to strengthen the peace, trust and tolerance as fundamental preconditions for normal life and prosperity of all people and all citizens. Boris Vukobrat Founder and President of the Peace and Crises Management Foundation 5 BORIS VUKOBRAT PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OF THE PEACE AND CRISES MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends and participants at this event, on behalf of the Peace and Crises Management Foundation which celebrated 20 years of existence, please allow me to say how glad I am to see you all here today. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to the authors of the publication Reviews 2012, a reflection on our first publication, Proposals for a New Commonwealth of the Republics ex-Yugoslavia, published in 1992. The goal of these Reviews was to reflect on our proposals made 20 years ago, to see what has happened in the meanwhile and to see what the present situation is. One of the participants who was with us since the very beginning, Dr. Žarko Puhovski, told me this morning during breakfast: “This time, let us try to be successful and efficient, as opposed to the last time, when we tried to be original.” In other words, based on the book Reviews 2012 you are holding in front of you, we have concluded what is the situation like today, and we are all, more or less, familiar with it. Our primary goal today is to conclude this meeting one step closer, not to what is, but to what should be and to what needs to be done in order to get there. Let’s get straight to the point. MIRJANA PRLJEVIć EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE PEACE AND CRISES MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION Dear Vice-President Mrs. Kopp, dear Ministers, Your Excellencies, venerable professors, ladies and gentlemen, I greet you on behalf of the Peace and Crises Management Foundation. Today, when the Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary, I wish to mention one very important dimension of our work. When Mr. Vukobrat, our founder and president, made the first step in the sphere of strategic philanthropy 20 years ago and started the initiative for the execution of a strategic document whose goal was to present the guidelines for further investments of company Copechim into the Balkan region, that is when first steps were made towards the establishing of an informal group of experts, later named the Cavtat Group. Strategic philanthropy which is to the full meaning of the word defined as a unique and powerful module for successful combining of company’s marketing objectives with the desire to enhance social wellbeing, is based on the complete fulfilment and belief that full engagement in the sphere of civil society produces necessary steps which serve to the society as the indicators of pervading strategic values which have been endangered, obstructed, forgotten or understated. Constant listening of the market and the civil society at the beginning of the 90s has inspired the founder to institutionally and organizationally define the ideas 7 through establishing a Foundation called a Peace and Crises Management Foundation, and later to implement the ideas through the Proposals for a New Commonwealth of the Republics of ex-Yugoslavia. After long and active work, as well as through direct participation at the 4th World Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations which was held in Qatar in December 2011, the Foundation has received yet another recognition. During the session titled Long-term Strategy for Global and Sustainable Development Based on Civilisation Partnership, together with other participants, the Foundation has worked on defining of strategic guidelines for development of civil society in accordance with the Future of Civilisations Global Forecast for 2050, when we came up with the following conclusions: 1. Only through an integral approach and through strategic partnerships between various parties involved in the development of society, from the state to each individual, can we make the first steps forward towards the development of process for sustainable development, both on global and local level, for each individual country; 2. The development of new, specific institutions and mechanisms is required in order to implement the said strategy completely; 3. A synthesis of well-designed projects has to be implemented which would lead to revolutionary solutions pertaining to computer sciences, scientific and educational dimension of the society’s development; 4. The most endangered areas have to be clearly identified which are of importance for thorough global transformation of society, followed by active participation aiming to change the society in accordance with the set goals. Even though we are aware that these ideas cannot be understood by all the inhabitants of this planet at the very beginning, it is our desire to do all we can to help these ideas find their way to full implementation. Traditionally, the primary focus of Foundations is on performing good deeds and providing financial support to socially relevant projects. The fact that the Peace and Crises Management Foundation has since its beginning set enviable standards when it comes to engagement of experts in various fields, citizens and other partners who have given their contribution to the realization of our projects, speaks in favour of the idea that we knew what we are doing from the very beginning, we knew our goals and our mission on this journey. Specifically, the Foundation has over the past 20 years given a significant contribution in the following domains: education concerning the human rights, peace and cooperation in the region based on the principles of regionalization, interreligious dialogue, new economic diplomacy, honouring of diversities 8 and multiculturality for better coexistence of citizens, and numerous other projects. And just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, I am certain that we have already made several steps on this journey. It is of utter importance to stay on this road we have chosen and to act in accordance with the slogan of the today’s conference – “There is no Way to Peace, Peace is the Wa y ”. 9 10 11 MODERATOR PROF. VLADIMIR GLIGOROV, PhD RESEARCH ECONOMIST, THE VIENNA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC STUDIES Before we begin, I would like to extend my gratitude to Boris and Mirjana for organizing this conference and for the effort they invested into this conference and into everything they did to date, and also to all of you who participate in this conference because, in my opinion, this is a good moment to talk about certain very serious and interesting issues since, at least from the perspective of the present-day challenges,