Agrobanka shareholders insist on compensation

Agrobanka shareholders insist on compensation

BELGRADE -- Foreign shareholders of the former Agrobanka said in a statement that their issue was "among the most important" when Aleksandar Vučić was recently interviewed.

They specified this happened after the Serbian prime minister's lecture given at the London School of Economics on October 27.

"Among the most important issues in addition to international relations and freedom of the media, was the question of Agrobanke shareholders," said the statement, and added:

"Intensive contacts of shareholders of Agrobanka with EU countries, the U.S., the European Commission and the EU delegation in Serbia made the
Agrobanka affair a textbook example of bad and irresponsible attitude of the state towards those who invest in a country. It can be said that the solution to the Agrobanka affair will be the litmus paper upon which investors evaluate security of investments in Serbia, and for the European Commission it will be a clear signal of how far European reforms in Serbia have progressed, on which depends the speed of further progress towards membership of Serbia in the EU."

According to the shareholders, when asked about the compensation, Vučić "stressed that the state of Serbia will undertake all lawful measures to compensate those who have lost something that belongs to them."

"This raises the crucial question of when it will happen, since three years have passed since the shareholders were robbed, and nothing has been done to
return the shareholder capital to its owners," said the statement, and added that they "emphasize that for this period the state of Serbia, beside the looted private property, will also have to compensate for all damages...