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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

No electricity cuts, price rise during heating season

Belgrade, 25 September 2014

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated today that in the next six months there will be no increase in electricity prices, and confirmed that during the winter there will be no power cuts.

Vucic said at a press conference in the Serbian government that there will be enough gas as 450 million cubic metres have been stored, and at the same time he called on all citizens to save electricity and to pay bills for electricity and gas regularly.

He added that the government is considering the option to secure another 250 million cubic metres from storage facilities in Hungary in order to have enough for the entire industry.

The Prime Minister confirmed that a summit of prime ministers of central and eastern Europe will be held on 16-18 December, which will also be attended by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

This meeting, which will be the largest event held in Belgrade after more than 40 years, will be attended between 16 and 18 prime ministers, given that some prime ministers of countries outside the region have expressed a desire to participate, Vucic said.

He expressed the hope that the celebration of the 70 anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade in World War II will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting that the final confirmation of his arrival is expected in the middle of next week.

The Prime Minister expressed his gratitude to all who have supported fiscal consolidation measures in order to ensure younger generations a safer future, and reiterated that as early as 2016 Serbia will be the country with the highest economic growth in Europe.

Vucic did not specify when the austerity measures of slashing pensions and salaries in the public sector will start to be implemented, and reiterated that the government’s intention is not to cut wages and pensions, but to reduce the public, and strengthen the private sector, so that salaries in the private sector could be higher.

Unfortunately, we have deflation which reduces GDP. Our goal is to have controlled inflation of 2% to 2.5%, that prices do not rise, and the difficult times we are going through now are a prerequisite for reforming the whole society.

With the solidarity tax, the wages were decreased by 5.4%, and the new reduction will be 4.5 percent, while pensions in the total volume of funds account for a 5% decrease, the Prime Minister pointed out.

Vucic stated that he will not attend the Pride Parade on 28 September and underscored that it is his duty of a prime minister to guarantee safety and security to the people, while the decision on whether to attend the event is a matter of personal choice.

The final security evaluation on holding the Pride Parade will be made on 26 September.

Speaking about the floods that hit Serbia in May, Vucic said that the citizens who have suffered damage received a total of €28 million.

He recalled that the largest number of houses need to be built in Krupanj, Valjevo and Svilajnac, adding that the construction in Krupanj and Valjevo will start as early as tomorrow, and the next week in other places too.

The state will help all the affected citizens in accordance with its abilities and everything will be done in the shortest time possible, the Prime Minister underlined and announced that in the next days he will visit eastern Serbia, which was hit in the September floods.

He said that tomorrow he will travel to Germany, where he will visit the largest pig farm in Europe with which Serbia will try to establish cooperation.

According to him, additional subsidies for farmers are being prepared, aimed at providing incentives to those who work hard 365 days a year.

Vucic reiterated that the South Stream gas pipeline is a good deal for Serbia, but that its realisation depends solely on the Russian and European sides, adding that Serbia's EU integration will not be affected because of this project.

We know what our strategic goal is, and that is membership in the EU, but we are not going to work against citizens of Serbia, or introduce sanctions to Russia, Vucic concluded.