Translation of and commentary on an article from our colleagues at
german-foreign-policy.com by Rodney Atkinson
The German Foreign Office is putting the Serb Government under massive pressure to try to stop the sale of a steel company to a US firm. The German Ambassador in Belgrade has threatened Serbia in an official note with severe economic and legal consequences if the decision is not revoked.
The cause of the threats from Berlin is the sale of the well established Serb SARTID IRON AND STEEL COMPANY to US STEEL KOSICE (SLOVAKIA) a subsidiary of the US Steel of America which with the purchase of SARTID is building its market in east and South east Europe. German firms were also interested in this most significant Serb steel producer.
The German Ambassador in Belgrade has now demanded that the Serb Government reverse its decision on the sale of SARTID because the potential German investors had been “illegally” disadvantaged. (Given the 20 year role of the German State in the break up of Yugoslavia it is not surprising if the Serbs preferred a traditional ally like the USA – despite their grotesque aberration of the war against Yugoslavia – than a traditional enemy like Germany, to own their steel industry! -RA)
If the decision were not reversed then German companies would cease investing in Serbia and Montenegro. (Given the targeting of such investment on critical industrial sectors and in particular on the Czech, Austrian, Polish and Serb press where German owners have sought to influence editorial content, such a threat seems more like an opportunity! RA)
Germany as the largest foreign investor in Serbia and Montenegro (ie the former Yugoslavia) has great (in other words excessive) influence in the country. The German company WAZ has a leading position in the Yugoslav media and uses the position to intervene in public debate.
The German Ambassador announced that German companies would seek to enforce their claims on SARTID at the International Court in Vienna. (Note how the carefully constructed legal system of freedom of movement of people, goods and capital which the German political class has created in the EU cannot – yet – affect Serbia, hence the appeal to a different court. But the power which the EU economic and constitutional structure gives to German economic and political – not to mention demographic – imperialism is of course unlimited. See “EU’s Eastern Conquest – Der Drang nach Osten” on this site.)
See also: Europe’s Full Circle and Fascist Europe Rising under Publications on this site.
