Serbia Today Interview Ann Pesic

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INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK
Interview, August 11, 2009
Ann Pesic
Honorary Consul General of Ireland

“A Wonderful Sense of Freedom”
By Ljilja Cvekic

BELGRADE, August 11, 2009 (Serbia Today) – The opportunity to travel to other countries in Europe would widen horizons and change the views and attitudes of young people in Serbia, giving them the sense of freedom the former Yugoslavia once had, says Ireland’s Honorary Consul to Serbia, Ann Pesic.

“It would change their outlook for the better in a very short time. Young Irish are searching the Internet every Thursday to find an interesting place to travel abroad over the weekend, it could be same here, and not to have people with masters degree in English who have never been in the country the language originates from,” Pesic told Serbia Today in an interview.

The Irish consulate, on the second floor of an old building in the heart of downtown Belgrade, discretely marked with a small plate next to a buzzer and with no armed guards and crowds of people waiting in front of the entrance, was opened six years ago. The young people working there are volunteers and visa applications are sent to Athens for approval, the only other Irish Embassy in the area apart from Ljubljana.

“It is too expensive to have embassies in each country. Ireland is a small country,” she says. “People can apply for visa on-line and the first decision may take a little longer, but subsequent visas are quicker and easier.”

About 2,500 Serbs live in Ireland, in a country of four million. They adapt easily and are quickly included into the society and soon feel like they are at home.

“Serbs make friends with the local Irish population. They’ve understood that it is the only way to fit into the life there and they don’t think about going back home. By now I know most of the Serb families there. I know about their children, their health, their problems.”

Is the mentality of the two nations similar? “May be we are hard headed in the same way.”

Ireland, one of the first countries to join the European Union in 1973, has a very positive attitude towards the admission of Serbia into the 27-nation bloc, she says. “But I think all other countries have now the same opinion. The Balkans cannot remain a hole in Europe.”

However, lot has to be done here. More than 30 years ago, Ireland needed seven years to carry out the reforms and improve the economic climate. Now, when the situation is much less stable and the atmosphere within the EU much less enthusiastic, it could take a long time for Serbia to adopt all the new laws and reform the country.

“Good planning is necessary and time. Ireland made great reforms in the educational system, based on a plan looking twenty years ahead and at the possible professions needed to support economic expansion. Industry was included and institutions were set up, such the Irish Development Authority and Enterprise Ireland to support major changes and the needs of economic development .”

The infrastructure and decentralization are other areas the country has to work on, especially if it wants to attract foreign investments. Ireland has done it through a 10-year tax exemptions program for those who have built factories and opened new jobs, by building good roads and providing good power and water supplies.

“Serbia has always some other problem to solve. The energy dissipates in several directions. Too much time has been wasted. Yugoslavia had a great chance to join the EU in 1990. It’s hard to believe that 20 years have passed since. The country has suffered from isolation for a very long time.”

Ann Pesic came to Belgrade in the late seventies, married a Serb architect and gave birth to “three Serb sons” as she says. “At that time life here was much better than in Ireland; the food was better, wages higher, people happier. It was a big country, opened to the world, people traveled a lot. There was no stress because people knew they would get their salaries and pensions, had good health care and education for their children.”

“Many foreigners have no idea how it was like here 25 years ago. People were in a good mood, loved having guests and getting together. Belgrade was a centre of culture where actors, film directors and musicians wanted to visit.”

People are angry now, because their lives have been destroyed and they have no choice and lost hope. If the country makes to the “white Schengen list” in January, it would change the atmosphere significantly. “You can feel it on the plane, with all those smiling people, happy to be able to travel and to have that wonderful sense of freedom.”