At the sitting held on 2 April, the Privatisation Committee considered and accepted the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development’s Reports on the Activities of the Privatisation Agency for February and March 2009. The Committee also accepted two pieces of information of the Republic of Serbia Share Fund viz. on the capital transferred to the Share Fund after the termination of the contracts concluded between the Privatisation Agency and buyers of privatisation subjects and on sales of shares/stakes form the Share Fund portfolio in March 2009.

The Committee members considered the request of a group of citizens that the premises they had bought from “Borovo” be exempted from the privatisation process of PE “Boreli” from Belgrade. The submitters of the request stated that the buyers of 23 locations from “Boreli”, which is engaged in litigation with the Croatian company “Borovo” regarding property owned by former Yugoslav republics, request access to the property they had bought in line with current Serbian regulations. They requested that their case be exempted from the Ordinance on protection of property and shares of enterprises with seat on the territory of ex-Republics of SFRY, since the ordinance came into force after the premises had already been sold.

The Committee deemed that these cases fall into the purview of the courts which should confirm the buyers’ right of ownership and decided to request an update on these cases from the Committee on Justice and Administration.

The Committee then considered the information of the Privatisation Agency on the control of the fulfillment of contractual obligations of the Buyer of the social capital of Privatisation Subject Machine Industry “Lokomotiva”AD from Nis, Buyer of the social capital of Privatisation Subject “Akustika”AD from Svrljig and Buyer of the social capital of Privatisation Subject ”Mladost”AD from Cuprija.

On the occasion, union and local government representatives pointed out that the buyers did not fulfill their contractual obligations regarding investment into the bought companies, nor did they ensure continuity of operations or paid wages, so they requested that the contracts of sale and privatisation of said companies be terminated. They also pointed out that by prolonging the deadlines the Privatisation Agency enabled the buyers to appropriate and diminish the companies’ assets.

The Committee deemed that it is not within its jurisdiction to terminate sale contracts, only to control the Privatisation Agency’s operations and instructed the submitters of the request to address the municipal courts.

At the sitting, the Committee members requested information on the course of privatisation of Belgrade Fair.

The Committee sitting was chaired by Milan Nikolic, Committee Chairman.