Goran Svilanović

Goran Svilanović (born 22 October, 1963 in Gnjilane) is a Serbian politician, the Chairman of Working Table I of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and a member of International Commission on the Balkans.

Svilanović's father Tihomir holds a doctoral degree in agricultural science while mother Stavrula is an accountant. He spent his childhood in Kosovo before prior to his family moving to Belgrade when he was seven.

He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law with an LL.B. and LL.M. He studied at the Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg and received the Sasakawa Foundation fellowship in 1990. He also studied at the Faculty of Law in Saarbrücken and at the European Peace University in Austria. Svilanović was dismissed from the University of Belgrade when he publicly opposed the controversial University law in 1998, where he worked as a teaching assistant. He also worked for several human rights and anti war organizations in Serbia.

Active in politics in way or another since 1993, he became the vice-president of the Civic Alliance of Serbia (Građanski savez Srbije) in 1998, and became the party's president in 1999. News of this promotion found him on location in uniform during NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, as he was drafted and had to serve.

His party never enjoyed wide popular support, but it was part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition, and as such has participated in the government from 2000 until late 2003. Svilanović himself held a high-ranking post as Serbia and Montenegro's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 until 2004.

In Serbian parliamentary elections in December 2003, the Civic Alliance of Serbia nominated its members on the Democratic Party's ballot. They won 12.6% of the votes, and Svilanović was a member of parliament since January 2004.

In December 2004, Svilanović resigned as president of the Civic Alliance of Serbia, as in November 2004 he was selected the Chairman of Working Table I of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. He still remained member of the party and in 2007, supported the merger of the Civic Alliance of Serbia into the Liberal Democratic Party.

Personal life

Svilanović is married to Dušica Radukić, former teaching assistant at University of Belgrade's Faculty of Agriculture and since 2002 - Mercator's director of marketing in Serbia. [http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.co.yu/arhiva/2003/08/22/srpski/T03082101.shtml] When this Slovenian supermarket chain physically returned to Serbia in 2003, after an absence of more than a decade, many saw Foreign Minister Svilanović's warm greeting speech during the ribbon-cutting ceremonies at Mercator's New Belgrade location as inappropriate considering the personal nature of his ties with the company.

They have two children - daughter Danica and son Tihomir.

External links

* [http://www.stabilitypact.org Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe]
* [http://www.parlament.sr.gov.yu/content/eng/index.asp National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia]
* [http://www.balkan-commission.org International Commission on the Balkans]