page_title: Mirko Cvetković
section_title: Prime Minister
hierarchical_section_title: Mirko Cvetković / Political career / Prime Minister
caption_attribution_description: Vice President Joe Biden is greeted by Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković on his arrival in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 20, 2009.
context_page_description: Mirko Cvetković is a Serbian politician who was Prime Minister of Serbia from 2008–12. He was Minister of Finance from 2007–08, and from 2011–12.
  Cvetković became the Prime Minister as an nonpartisan politician endorsed by For a European Serbia coalition, which declared Serbia's accession to the European Union as its main goal. During his government run, the EU has abolished visas for Serbian citizens traveling to the Schengen Area countries, Serbia received an EU candidate status, as well as, completed obligations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The period of his reign was marked by the challenges of the Kosovo declaration of independence and the global financial crisis, leading to low rates of economic growth.
context_section_description: On 27 June 2008, President Boris Tadić named Mirko Cvetković as the new Prime Minister following the parliamentary elections that were held in May. Other possible candidates were the current Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić and the current President of the Executive Council of Vojvodina Bojan Pajtić.
  Mirko Cvetković is the first prime minister of Serbia since the introduction of the multiparty system who had not previously been in a high position in one of the ruling parties.
  He was sworn in on 7 July after taking the oath of office in the National Assembly. In his exposé keynote address Cvetković said that one of the first moves of the new Government will be to submit the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union to the parliament for ratification and that it will not accept Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence.
  He also stated that the government will strengthen the economy and social responsibility and lead a decisive battle against crime and corruption, and in favor of international justice. He also said that one of the first lawmaking initiatives will be the ratification of the energy arrangement with the Russian Federation.
  Cvetković is seen by many as an expert in the economy, a man of compromise, respected by the Democratic Party but by other political parties as well. Western news agencies describe him as a "Democrat" (indicating support for the pro-Western Democratic Party) and a "low profile technocrat" likely to prefer improving Serbia's economy rather than concentrating on difficult political issues.
  His political policies combined authority and moderate economic liberalism — that is, the support of laissez-faire economic policies.
  Cabinet of Mirko Cvetković is the longest-serving since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
caption: Mirko Cvetković with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden.
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