07.12.2012.
Project to support social reintegration of professional SAF members
In the Career Change Directorate of the Department for Tradition, Standard and Veterans, a meeting of the Interim Steering Committee for the NCO Training Center Project was held in which on behalf of the Nordic Initiative countries there were the following participants: Berit Manson and Kirsten Hefner-Dahl from Defence Command Denmark and Jakob Heradsveit from the Ministry of Defence of the Kingdom of Norway.The meeting was chaired by Colonel Sladjan Ristic, head of the TSV Department, who, among other things, pointed out that the Ministry of Defence, after many years of very successful cooperation in the implementation of social reintegration of professional SAF members, expects intensification of defence cooperation between the Ministries of Defence of the Kingdom of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and the Republic of Serbia at the bilateral level.
- As is well known, out of several thousand professional SAF members, who have lost their jobs due to the process of transition and reform of the defence system since 2005 to date, thousands of people have used some form of social resettlement, funded by the Nordic Initiative countries. More than 13% of them found a job in the private or public sector, 26% of them started their own business, while a quarter of the total number opted for agricultural activities, Colonel Ristic said.
Colonel Ristic also stressed that professionalization of SAF conditions also the need for addressing further social reintegration of professional SAF members whose military service is to be terminated due to legal provisions relating to age, what makes it difficult for them to find a job in the civilian sector either. For these reasons, the TSV Department designed a Draft Project to support their employment after the termination of their professional military service, with the aim to identify and, with adequate financial support from donors, to implement efficient contents of their social reintegration.
The representative of the Norwegian MoD Jakob Heradsveit pointed out, on this occasion again, that Serbia is an important strategic partner of his country and that the Norwegian Ministry of Defence is very interested in financing the project to support professional soldiers, as well as all other projects that contribute to the improvement of bilateral cooperation between the defence ministries of Norway and Serbia.
