Serbian Defence Ministry Accused of Threatening Research

NGOs and think tanks are urging Serbia's Defence Ministry to withdraw new regulations it proposes on research in the country, claiming it would jeopardise most forms of research.

The National Convention on the European Union, gathering 19 different research organisations and think thanks in Serbia, together with more than 30 scholars and researchers, has called on the Ministry to withdraw its newest regulation on conducting research in Serbia on behalf of foreign entities and sponsored by foreign institutions or donors.

According to critics, the changes would violate the Serbian constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Human and Civil Rights.

Predrag Petrovic, director of the Belgrade Center for Security Studies, a member of the Convention, told BIRN that the scope of the new regulation was "too wide" and would jeopardise the possibility of conducting research in many fields.

"The regulations aren't defined well and are too wide. By accepting them, research could be impossible to conduct not only in the field of security and defence, but also in the field of urbanism, mining and humanities," Petrovic said.

If the new regulation is accepted, any research conducted for foreign entities or sponsored by foreign donors would need first to be approved by the Ministry of Defence, he claimed.

As the definition of "defence" is wide within the regulation and as, according to Petrovic, it does not focus only on security, even companies like Coca Cola would be unable to conduct research on such matters as customer preferences, for example.

The regulations are also deemed to be at variance with Serbia's orientation towards EU accession, and with accession talks Chapter 25, related to...