Duško Lopandić (Serbian Cyrillic: Душко Лопандић; born 1957) is a Serbian politician, university professor, writer and former diplomat. He has been a vice-president of the centristSerbia Centre (SRCE) since 2022.
Lopandić started working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia in 1986. From 1988 to 1994, he worked in the Yugoslav mission in Brussels. Following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, Lopandić was the director of the European Union directorate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of FR Yugoslavia from 2001 to 2004.[2] From 2004 to 2007, he was the assistant to the minister of international economic relations for multilateral affairs. From 2007 to 2011, Lopandić was the ambassador of Serbia to Portugal and Cape Verde, From 2011 to 2013, he served as the assistant to the minister of foreign affairs for the European Union and regional cooperation. He was the ambassador of Serbia to the European Union from 2013 until 2016 when he was dismissed by foreign minister Ivica Dačić for an inadequate reaction to the organization of the Croatian exhibition about the controversial Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac in the European Parliament.[3][4] President Tomislav Nikolić stated that Lopandić was wrong since he did not inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the exhibition.[5] Until his retirement in 2022, he was the head of the department for analysis and foreign policy planning" in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1]
Academic career
Lopandić collaborated with numerous research institutes and published over 100 scientific works regarding EU, history of diplomacy, regional cooperation and international relations.[1] He has been writing history books and school textbooks.[6]
Lopandić is a professor at the Faculty of Justice and Economics in Novi Sad for the subjects Public International Law and European Law.[1]
Political career
In July 2022, Lopandić joined the newly founded centrist political organization Serbia Centre (SRCE) of Zdravko Ponoš[7] and was later elected its vice-president.[8]
Other activities
Lopandić is a long-time activist of the European Movement in Serbia, in which he was elected to the position of vice president. In 2003, he received the award of the European Movement in Serbia for Contribution of the Year to Europe.[1]
Selected works
La communauté économique européenne et la Yougoslavie : commerce et cooperation dans les accords entre la communauté économique européenne et la Yougoslavie[9]