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FINANCIAL TIMES (UK) Questions over Serbian pensions give Kosovo debate a keener edge By Neil MacDonald in Belgrade Published: February 26 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2008 02:00 Jovan Gligovic sits on his bed all day wearing a woollen hat and flannel pyjamas, basking in the limited sunlight that enters the small apartment he shares with his wife and their middle-aged granddaughter near the centre of Belgrade. "When I retired early in 1962 because of weak lungs, my wife and I had enough for a humble yet decent living," Mr Gligovic recalls. "Then, in the 1990s, I suddenly couldn't buy a kilo of corn meal for my whole monthly pension." Mr Gligovic, who turned 100 last year, has lived under 14 different state names without moving more than 700km from his birthplace, a Montenegrin village that was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The former engineer outlived the duchy and short-lived kingdom of Montenegro before the first world war; the inter-war kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which became Yugoslavia; Hungarian and German occupations in the second world war; and three versions of communist Yugoslav federation under Josip Broz Tito. Like hundreds of thousands of pensioners all over the former Yugoslavia, he counted on more generous care from the state after his retirement. Until the late 1980s, Yugoslavia combined high living standards - the best among communist countries - with a generous social safety net. That was partly thanks to the assistance of western-based financial institutions that extended easy loans to Tito for disobeying Soviet Russia. The bill came after Tito died and the Soviet threat waned. Economic contraction prompted the richer republics to secede, plunging the federation into bloodshed. Serbia today has the most refugees and displaced people in Europe, according to the UN. Many pensioners, including Mr Gligovic's daughter, lost years of payments due from neighbouring republics where they had worked. When the multi-ethnic federation collapsed in violence, hyperinflation also wiped out savings. Mr Gligovic, who spent his whole working life in Serbia, collects a monthly state pension for himself and his wife, a Serb born in Croatia in 1915. "It's better now than in the 1990s," he says. "But unlike 20 or 30 years ago, we wouldn't be able to survive without the help of my grandchildren. " The Serbian pensions system faces the same demographic pressure as those in western Europe as the relative number of retirees increases. Serbia already has about 1.5m pensioners supported by only 2.5m working people. Nearly a million are officially unemployed. Its problems were compounded by the need to work out cross-border pension payments with other former Yugoslav republics. Most republics have now done so. Slovenia - the only one already in the EU - still withholds pensions from non-Slovenes. Montenegro and Serbia are working on a pension transfer system after their peaceful separation in 2006. Complications may arise after Kosovo's declaration of independence on February 17. Elderly from all ethnic groups in the breakaway province often rely on Serbian pensions. By the Serbian system, the average pensioner gets fewer than 15,000 dinars (EUR200, $296, £151) per month. Mr and Mrs Gligovic together get 25,000 dinars month, including 7,000 dinars because of Mr Gligovic's blindness. It could be worse, Mr Gligovic says. "When I was an employee at Zorka [chemical works in north-western Serbia], I saw men in their 80s working themselves to death."
