Serbia

Serbia (Serbian: Србија, Srbija), officially the Republic of Serbia(Serbian: Република Србија, Republika Srbija), is a landlocked country in Central- and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans. Serbia is bordered by Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the west. The country's capital, Belgrade, was titled "City of the Future of South Europe" in 2006.

For centuries, located at, and shaped by, the cultural boundaries between the East and the West, a powerful medieval kingdom – later renamed the Serbian Empire – occupied much of the Balkans. The Serbian state disappeared by the mid-16th century, torn by domestic feuds,Ottoman-, Venetian-, Hungarian- and later, Austrian occupations. The success of the Serbian revolution in 1817 marked the birth of the Principality of Serbia, centered in the Šumadija region. In 1918 the former autonomous Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina proclaimed its secession from Austria-Hungary to unite with the Kingdom of Serbia.

The current borders of the country were established after World War II, when Serbia became a federal unit within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Serbia once again became an independent state in 2006, after Montenegro left the Serbia and Montenegro union. In February 2008, the parliament of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. Serbia's government, as well as the UN Security Council, have not recognized Kosovo's independence. The response from the international community has been mixed. Presently, Kosovo is recognised by 53 out of 192 member states. On October 8, 2008, the majority of the UN states backed Serbia in its judicial move on Kosovo, aimed at determining whether the secession was legal.

Serbia is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Council of Europe which it presided over in 2007. It is also a potential candidate for membership in the European Union and a militarily neutral country.

Geography

Serbia is at the crossroads between Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, between the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. The country is intersected by several major navigable rivers: the Danube (2850km), Sava (945 km), Tisa (1358km), joined by the Timiş River (350 km) and Begej (254 km), all of which connect Serbia with Northern and Western Europe (through the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal – North Sea route), to Eastern Europe (via the Tisa – , Timiş – , Begej – and Danube –Black Sea routes) and to Southern Europe (via the Sava river). The two largest Serbian cities - Belgrade and Novi Sad - are major regional Danubian harbours. The northern third of the country is located entirely within the Central European Pannonian Plain. The easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The north eastern border of the country is determined by the Carpathian Mountain range, which runs through the whole of Central Europe. The Southern Carpathians meet the Balkan Mountains, following the course of the Velika Morava, a 500 km long (partially navigable) river. The Midžor peak is the highest point in eastern Serbia at 2156 m. In the southeast, the Balkan Mountains meet the Rhodope Mountains, connecting the country with Greece. The Šar Mountains of Kosovo form the border with Albania, with one of the highest peaks in the region, Djeravica (2656 m). Dinaric Alps of Serbia follow the flow of the Drina river (at 350 km navigable for smaller vessels only) overlooking the Dinaric peaks on the opposite shore in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over a quarter of Serbia's overall landmass (27%) is covered by forest. In 2010, as projected, the national parks will take up 10% of the country's entire territory.

The Serbian climate varies between a continental climate in the north, with cold winters, and hot, humid summers with well distributed rainfall patterns, and a more Adriatic climate in the south with hot, dry summers and autumns and relatively cold winters with heavy inland snowfall. Differences in elevation, proximity to the Adriatic Sea and large river basins, as well as exposure to the winds account for climate differences.Vojvodina possesses typical continental climate, with air masses from northern and western Europe which shape its climatic profile. South and South-west Serbia is subject to Mediterranean influences. However, the Dinaric Alps and other mountain ranges contribute to the cooling down of most of the warm air masses. Winters are quite harsh in Sandžak because of the mountains which encircle the plateau. The average annual air temperature for the period 1961–90 for the area with an altitude of up to 300m is 10.9 °C. The areas with an altitude of 300m to 500m have an average annual temperature of around 10.0 °C, and over 1000 m of altitude around 6.0 °C

Government and politics

On 4 February 2003 the parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia agreed to a weaker form of cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro within a confederal state called Serbia and Montenegro. The Union ceased to exist following Montenegrin and Serbian declarations of independence in June 2006.

After the ousting of Slobodan Milošević on 5 October 2000, the country was governed by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. Tensions gradually increased within the coalition until the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) left the government, leaving the Democratic Party (DS) in overall control.

Serbia held a two-day referendum on 28 October and 29 October 2006, that ratified a new constitution to replace the Milošević-era constitution.

The current President of Serbia is Boris Tadić, leader of the center-left Democratic Party (DS). He was reelected with 50.5% of the vote in the second round of the Serbian presidential election held on 4 February 2008.

Serbia held parliamentary elections on 21 May 2008. The coalition For a European Serbia led by DS claimed victory, but significantly short of an absolute majority. Following the negotiations with the leftist coalition centered around Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and parties of national minorities (those of Hungarians, Bosniaks and Albanians) an agreement was reached to make-up a new government, headed by Mirko Cvetković.

Present-day Serbian politics are fractious and extremely divided between nationalist and liberal European Union advocating parties. Issues include proposals to restore the Serbian monarchy whose family members have stated that they are interested in forming a constitutional monarchy in Serbia. However, none of the larger parties actively support restoration.

Serbia is divided into 24 districts plus the City of Belgrade. The districts and the City of Belgrade are further divided into municipalities. Serbia has 2 autonomous provinces: Vojvodina with (7 districts, 46 municipalities) and Kosovo and Metohija. Kosovo has declared independence but is still presently under the administration of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo; international negotiations began in 2006 to determine its final status. Kosovo declared its independence on 17 February 2008, which Belgrade opposes.

The part of Serbia that is neither in Kosovo nor in Vojvodina is called Central Serbia. Central Serbia is not an administrative division, unlike the two autonomous provinces, and it has no regional government of its own. In English this region is often called "Serbia proper" to denote "the part of the Republic of Serbia not including the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo", as the Library of Congressputs it. This usage was also employed in Serbo-Croatian during the Yugoslav era (in the form of "uža Srbija", literally: "narrow Serbia"). Its use in English is purely geographical, without any particular political meaning being implied.

Demographics

Serbia is populated mostly by Serbs. Significant minorities include Hungarians, Bosniaks,Roma, Croats, Czechs and Slovaks, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Romanians, etc. The northern province of Vojvodina is ethnically and religiously diverse.

According to the last official census data collected in 2002, ethnic composition of Serbia is:

• Total: 7,498,001
• Serbs: 6,212,000 (82.86%)
• Hungarians: 293,172 (3.91%)
• Bosniaks: 136,464 (1.82%)
• Roma: 107,971 (1.44%)
• Yugoslavs: 80,978 (1.08%)
• Croats: 70,602 (0.94%)
• Slovaks: 57,900 (0.89%)
• Others (each less than 1%): 474,323 (6.33%)

The census was not conducted in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo, which is under administration by the United Nations. According to the EU estimates however, the overall population is estimated at 1,350,000 inhabitants, of whom 90% are Albanians, 8% Serbs and others 2%.There are also around 200,000 Serbian and other refugees,who are expelled from Kosovo. Refugees and IDPs in Serbia form between 7% and 7.5% of its population – about half a million refugees sought refuge in the country following the series of Yugoslav wars (from Croatia mainly, to an extent Bosnia and Herzegovina too and the IDPs from Kosovo, which are the most numerous at over 200,000) Serbia has the largest refugee population in Europe. On the other hand, it is estimated that 500,000 people have left Serbia during the '90s alone. Significant amount of these people were college graduates. Serbia has the fourth oldest overall population on the planet, mostly due to heavy migration and low level of fertility, which is expected to continue in long terms.

Economy

With a GDP for 2008 estimated at $80.717 billion ($10,985 per capita PPP), Republic of Serbia is considered an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in 2006 was $5.85 billion or €4.5 billion. FDI for 2007 reached $4.2 Billion while real GDP per capita figures are estimated to have reached $7 100 (October 2008). The GDP growth rate showed increase by 6.3% (2005),5.8% (2006), reaching 7.5% in 2007 and 8.7% in 2008 as the fastest growing economy in the region.

At the beginning of the process of economic transition (1989), its favorable economic outlook in the region was hampered by politics, its economy being gravely impacted by the UN economic sanctions of 1992–95, as well as the sizable infrastructure and industry damage, suffered during the Kosovo war. Its problems were only augmented by losing the ex-Yugoslavia and Comecon markets. After the ousting of former Federal Yugoslav President Milošević in October 2000, the country experienced faster economic growth, and has been preparing for membership in the European Union, its most important trading partner.

The recovery of the economy still faces many problems, among which unemployment (18.1%) high export/import trade deficit and considerable national debt are most prominent. The country expects some major economic impulses and high growth rates in the next years. Serbia has been occasionally called a "Balkan tiger" because of its recent high economic growth rates, which averaged 6.6% (in the past three years), with FDI at its record levels.

Serbia grows about one-third of the world's raspberries and is the leading frozen fruit exporter.

89% of households in Serbia have fixed telephone lines, and the number of cell-phone users surpasses the number of population of Serbia itself by 23%, accounting to 9,21 million users (7,5 million citizens). (Telekom Srbija–5,6 million, Telenor has 3,1 million users and Vip mobile has the rest). 42% of households have computers, 33% use the internet, and 42% have cable TV, which puts the country ahead of the certain member states of the EU.

Serbia is proud of the fact that it owns one of the world's oldest airline carriers, the Jat Airways, founded in 1927. There are 3 international airports in Serbia: Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Niš Constantine the Great Airport and the Vršac international airport.

The country, especially the valley of the Morava, is often described as "the crossroads between East and West", which is one of the primary reasons for its turbulent history. The Morava valley route, which avoids mountainous regions, is by far the easiest way of traveling overland from continental Europe to Greece and Asia Minor. Modern Serbia was the first among its neighbours to acquire railroads- in 1858 the first train arrived to Vrsac, then Austria-Hungary (by 1882 route to Belgrade and Nis was completed). The railway system is operated by Serbian Railways.

European routes E65, E70, E75 and E80, as well as the E662, E761, E762, E763, E771, and E851 pass through the country. The E70 westwards from Belgrade and most of the E75 are modern highways of motorway / autobahn standard or close to that. As of 2005, Serbia has 1,481,498 registered cars, 16,042 motorcycles, 9,626 buses, 116,440 trucks, 28,222 special transport vehicles, 126,816 tractors, and 101,465 trailers.

The Danube River, central Europe's connection to the Black Sea, flows through Serbia. Through Danube-Rhine-Mein canal the North Sea is also accessible. Tisza river offers a connection with Eastern Europe while the Sava river connects her to western former Yugoslav republics near the Adriatic Sea.