MILLION EUROS FROM THE BUDGET FOR ASSOCIATIONS OF SNS LAWMAKERS AND A MINISTER’S FATHER: This is how Milica Zavetnica’s ministry distributes public money!

In a year and a half, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs allocated nearly one million euros to veterans’ associations, among them organizations run by Serbian Progressive Party lawmakers. The money also went to the “Velika ruska matrica” association, headed by the father of European Integration Minister Nemanja Starović. While Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski has not answered questions about the criteria for allocating the money, Nemanja Nenadić of Transparency Serbia warns that such calls for applications raise serious questions about the control of public spending, as well as a possible conflict of interest, which Stamenkovski should have reported to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.

Nearly one million euros from the state coffers has flowed into the accounts of various veterans’ organizations in Serbia over the past year and a half. The Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, headed by Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, allocated the most money to associations run by officials of the ruling party, an analysis by Radio Free Europe (RFE) shows.

The list includes the “Zavičaj” organization of Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) lawmaker Nenad Abramović and the “Veterans of Košare Association,” whose representative is Ivan Antić, also an SNS lawmaker.

Interestingly, money from the ministry headed by Stamenkovski also went to the father of current European Integration Minister Nemanja Starović.

Although Starović heads the Ministry of European Integration, his father is, paradoxically, the founder of the “Velika ruska matrica” association.

How was the money allocated to the organizations and is there a conflict of interest? These questions remain unanswered, as neither Minister Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski nor the Ministry responded to our inquiries by the time this article was published.

Nemanja Nenadić of Transparency Serbia told Nova that in this and many other calls for applications for funds allocated to associations, ministries and local governments do not provide all the relevant information.

“For example, seeing the name of the organization that received the funds and the name of the project does not mean much if it has not been published what types of activities are being financed. Likewise, even if it is clear what was financed from the budget, it is impossible to reach an informed conclusion as to whether the money was spent in the best public interest if it is not known which projects the Ministry denied support,” Nenadić stated.

The Nova interlocutor also points out that the problem is that documented journalistic investigations have shown that money was given to organizations that exist only on paper and did not carry out activities, which no one monitored.

“Criminal investigations did not follow, or criminal proceedings initiated on that basis were not concluded. When it comes to a situation in which a member of parliament is the representative of an association, while the final decision on the allocation of money is made by a minister, the question of a conflict of interest can indeed be raised, because members of parliament, under the provisions of the Constitution, if not in reality, decide whether someone will be appointed minister. This further means that Minister Đurđević-Stamenkovski should have informed the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and requested an opinion on whether she was allowed to participate in making that decision,” Nenadić emphasized.

How much money did SNS lawmakers receive?

As reported by RFE, among those who received the most state money in the Ministry’s previous three calls for applications is the association of displaced persons “Zavičaj” from Belgrade. The association’s president is Nenad Abramović, a lawmaker from the ruling SNS.

In 2026, his organization was awarded around 3,500 euros for the project “In Memory Under One Flag.” Previously, in 2025, the Ministry donated more than 11,000 euros to them for projects titled “Let Us Remember the Suffering” and “So That We Do Not Forget, We Must Not.”

Abramović did not answer RFE’s questions about what these programs specifically entail, or whether and when they were implemented.

The “Veterans of Košare” association of SNS lawmaker Ivan Antić also received money.

“This veterans’ association, with offices in Novi Sad and Ruma, received a total of more than 15,000 euros from the relevant Ministry since the beginning of 2025. Its Ruma branch was awarded around 5,000 euros that year in two separate calls for applications for the same project titled ‘In the Footsteps of Glorious Ancestors.’ At the same time, the Belgrade branch was allocated 10,000 euros in three calls – twice for the project ‘Heroes Against Oblivion’ and once for the project ‘Heroes Against Oblivion 2,’” RFE reports.

The NGO of SNS lawmaker Miodrag Linta – “Association of Serbs from the Region” – also received a donation of around 3,000 euros in the Ministry’s latest call for applications. According to the Ministry’s decision, the money was allocated for publishing the magazine “Srpsko kolo.”

Milan Starović, the father of European Integration Minister Nemanja Starović, told RFE that the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights donated money to them last year and stressed that they are not privileged because of his son’s ministerial position.

“We received money through calls for applications, but we were also rejected. Recently, we were rejected in a call by the Provincial Secretariat for Culture,” Starović stated.

Starović, whose organization advocates for strengthening Serbian-Russian relations, added that he did not want to comment on his son’s political activities and that before his son took office as European Integration Minister, they had a conversation in which they concluded that “Europe is not only the European Union.”

How much money did SNS lawmakers receive?

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