Vucic: Serbia avoiding nationalization of NIS, US most likely to extend license

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that he believed that the US would extend the license for the operation of Naftna industrija Srbije (NIS) and that Serbia was avoiding nationalizing the company, which is under US sanctions due to its majority Russian ownership.

The US has set a deadline of May 22 to conclude negotiations between Russia’s Gazprom, which is the majority owner of NIS, and Hungary’s MOL on the sale of that stake, and Vucic said that he was not optimistic that this would happen within that deadline.

– I do not think that the Americans will not extend the license. I believe in it, I am talking to everyone – he told RTS.

He added that a solution had to be found for NIS and that no one in Serbia had suffered, because there had been no fuel shortage and the state had waived part of the excise taxes so that fuel would not become more expensive.

When asked whether the change of government in Hungary had complicated MOL’s negotiations with Serbia, Vucic said that it had not.

– I don’t know if it had complicated any other relations. Relations with Serbia have not been complicated. I have spoken to Peter Magyar and the relations are fine – he said.

Commenting on the possibility that Serbia, as a minority owner of NIS, would nationalize the company, Vucic said that Serbia had been avoiding it, although it could have done so “in three days,” because the plan had been to resolve the problem with NIS’s further operations in another way.

– The important thing is that citizens don’t have to worry, they can be sure that there will be fuel at any time – Vucic said.

He announced a package of measures for pensioners.

– We are preparing something for pensioners that will mean a lot to them. This package of measures will help them a lot and their pockets will be full in a short period of time. People know that it will happen and they can expect it in the next three months – Vucic said.

He stressed that support for the standard of pensioners would be provided from real income.

– We do not need debt for that, debt is needed, for example, for some weapons. Many EU countries are much more indebted than us. Our debt rate is half as low as theirs – said Vucic.

Predsedništvo Republike Srbije

NIS a.d. Novi Sad

MOL Serbia d.o.o. Beograd

MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Budapest

president of Serbia

Naftna industrija Srbije

NIS

Gazprom

MOL

Aleksandar Vučić

nationalization of NIS