Serbia is making an inventory of Serbian companies' property in former Yugoslavian countries

The Property Directorate of the Republic of Serbia put out a public call to all businesses and public institutions that owned real estate in former Yugoslavian countries to send their business information and property documentation, so that the Directorate could make a unified register of their immovable property.

Making an inventory of Serbian companies' property would allow Serbia to help businesses solve their legal ownership.

The Directorate's director Jovan Vorkapic says that the public call refers to all legal entities and businesses, and also institutions who had resorts or commercial property, to send the Directorate any documentation they kept.

– Legal ownership is resolved between those businesses and successor states , in most casesthat's Croatia. The goal is to make a register in order for the country to decide on how to help in these processes, Vorkapic told Tanjug.

In the last decade courts in Croatia denied the legal claims of Serbian businesses on the account of them being premature and that it was necessary to sign a bilateral agreement and to work out Annex G of Yugoslav Agreement on Succession Issues.

– They tell them to search for legal remedies all the way to Strasbourg . Those are expensive processes and a way to discourage Serbian companies to try to exercise their rights, Vorkapic underlined.

Constitutional Court of Serbia has taken a stance to enforce Annex G and to return Croatian business their former property in Serbia. Many commercial and other properties were already returned.

– Constitutional Courts's position is that private property rights are inalienable rights, but Croatia suddenly adopts a law that transfers all the property to state ownership, Vorkapic pointed out.

One of major problems is that many businesses that had property in former Yugoslavian countries had gone bankrupt or were privatized. The value of the property of Serbian businesses in Croatian is estimated at around EUR 1.8 billion.
Big businesses from former Yugoslavia such as Jugobanka a.d, Beobanka a.d., NIS and others are making property claims in Croatia.

Slovenia, on the other hand, kept Serbian businesses as registered property owners in their cadastre so there is no need to go to court their in order to get their property back.

RDZI Direkcija za imovinu Republike Srbije Beograd

Jugobanka a.d. Beograd

Beobanka a.d. Beograd

NIS a.d. Novi Sad

Ustavni sud Republike Srbije

Jovan Vorkapic

Annex G

property inventory

popis imovine srpskih firmi u bivšim republikama SFRJ

inventory of Serbian companies' property in former Yugoslavian countries