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 \u0110ur\u0111evi\u0107 Stamenkovski, allocated the most money to associations run by officials of the ruling party, an analysis by Radio Free Europe (RFE) shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The list includes the \u201cZavi\u010daj\u201d organization of Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) lawmaker Nenad Abramovi\u0107 and the \u201cVeterans of Ko\u0161are Association,\u201d whose representative is Ivan Anti\u0107, also an SNS lawmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interestingly, money from the ministry headed by Stamenkovski also went to the father of current European Integration Minister Nemanja Starovi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Starovi\u0107 heads the Ministry of European Integration, his father is, paradoxically, the founder of the \u201cVelika ruska matrica\u201d association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How was the money allocated to the organizations and is there a conflict of interest? These questions remain unanswered, as neither Minister Milica \u0110ur\u0111evi\u0107 Stamenkovski nor the Ministry responded to our inquiries by the time this article was published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nemanja Nenadi\u0107 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor 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,\u201d Nenadi\u0107 stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCriminal 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 \u0110ur\u0111evi\u0107-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,\u201d Nenadi\u0107 emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cZavi\u010daj\u201d from Belgrade. The association’s president is Nenad Abramovi\u0107, a lawmaker from the ruling SNS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2026, his organization was awarded around 3,500 euros for the project \u201cIn Memory Under One Flag.\u201d Previously, in 2025, the Ministry donated more than 11,000 euros to them for projects titled \u201cLet Us Remember the Suffering\u201d and \u201cSo That We Do Not Forget, We Must Not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abramovi\u0107 did not answer RFE’s questions about what these programs specifically entail, or whether and when they were implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cVeterans of Ko\u0161are\u201d association of SNS lawmaker Ivan Anti\u0107 also received money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis 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 \u2018In the Footsteps of Glorious Ancestors.\u2019 At the same time, the Belgrade branch was allocated 10,000 euros in three calls \u2013 twice for the project \u2018Heroes Against Oblivion\u2019 and once for the project \u2018Heroes Against Oblivion 2,\u2019\u201d RFE reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NGO of SNS lawmaker Miodrag Linta \u2013 \u201cAssociation of Serbs from the Region\u201d \u2013 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 \u201cSrpsko kolo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milan Starovi\u0107, the father of European Integration Minister Nemanja Starovi\u0107, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe received money through calls for applications, but we were also rejected. Recently, we were rejected in a call by the Provincial Secretariat for Culture,\u201d Starovi\u0107 stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starovi\u0107, 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 \u201cEurope is not only the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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