Belgrade Waterfront

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday received the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Juma Rashid Al Dhaheri, to whom he handed a letter confirming Serbia's participation in Expo 2020 as an opportunity for the country to best present itself in the Middle Eastern region.

Activists from the civic movement opposed to the Belgrade Waterfront project have summoned a fresh rally for Thursday - as a government minister accused an OSCE official of interfering in Serbia's affairs over the controversy.

Belgrade police and Mayor Sinisa Mali have denied all knowledge of 30 masked men armed with baseball bats and equipped with diggers who tore down buildings on the city riverbank between Sunday night and Monday and allegedly beat up locals.

"This is very bad for refugees. This place helped me a lot when I came to Serbia," Arman, 23-year-old refugee from Afghanistan said as construction workers razed part of Miksaliste, an aid centre in Belgrade that offers food and other supplies to refugees from the Middle East.

Bitter divisions in Serbia over the development of the Belgrade Waterfront are the subject of a major investigative feature in Thursday's UK Guardian. The mega-development of the city's long neglected Danube bank has split Belgrade, the article recalls.

FINALLY Belgrade Waterfront cornerstone laid

The construction of Belgrade Waterfront started on Sunday by laying the foundation stone for two residential towers in Belgrade downtown, on the River Sava.

The construction of Belgrade Waterfront started on Sunday by laying the foundation stone for two residential towers in Belgrade downtown, on the River Sava.

The project is worth EUR 3.5 billion, Tanjug reported.

After the Serbian government published the contract for the Belgrade Waterfront project on Sunday, the protest group "Let's not Drown Belgrade" said it showed Serbia was giving up its sovereignty because it had committed itself not to pass laws that conflict with the contract.

Energoprojekt "could become Belgrade Waterfront contractor"

BELGRADE -- Serbia's construction industry giant Energoprojekt "could become the main contractor for the Belgrade Waterfront buildings that will be built first."

According to the Vecernje Novosti daily, "it will be known early next month if the price determined by the domestic builders will suit the investors."

Several hundred people gathered across from the Geozavod building in Belgrade, in a vain bid to stop the Serbian government from signing a multimillion deal with Abu Dhabi-based Eagle Hills to transform Sava riverbank into a huge new complex known as Belgrade Waterfront.