Serbia

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the situation in northern Kosovo and KFOR’s role will be one of the key topics of the NATO defence ministers’ meeting this week. The summit will be held in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

European Commission (EC) report on Serbia has already been written and the Commission is now working out some minor details. The only part that is unfinished is the one that refers to Kosovo.

Serbia should return to the negotiating table as soon as possible and focus on its priorities, European Parliament (EP) Rapporteur Jelko Kacin has stated. He added that Serbia’s priorities are not entirely clear now when the EU candidate status is within reach.

Minority groups in Serbia are preparing to boycott the country’s census due to disagreements over the ethnicity of data collectors and the language the census forms have been written in. Ethnic Albanians in South Serbia and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) from the southwestern region

An EU-mediated dialogue process scheduled to take place between representatives of Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels has been postponed after the Serbian delegation demanded a change in the discussion agenda. The seventh round of Belgrade-Pristina talks was due to take place today, covering the subjects of energy, telecommunications and Kosovo’s …

Rasim Ljajic says Serbia should adopt a two-pronged policy towards Kosovo: accepting the ‘reality’ of the loss of the south, while encouraging the Serb-run north to peacefully pursue its campaign for self-determination. In a break with Belgrade’s official line on Kosovo – which is that the whole of the ex-province …

At least six Kosovo Serbs and four NATO troops were injured in clashes at a disputed border crossing on Tuesday, NATO officials and local authorities said. Eyewitnesses said troops from the NATO peacekeeping force KFOR fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd rallying against the removal of a …

By an unusually large majority, Serbia’s parliament has passed two bills that it hopes will help it secure EU candidate status in October. Serbian parliamentarians on Monday adopted bills on public property and restitution of property, the last bills deemed as “musts” if Serbia is to meet the terms for …

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has denied that Putin will visit Belgrade in late October. “Prime Minister Putin is not coming to Belgrade in the end of October,” Peskov pointed out.

KFOR bust a barricade on the road to Jarinje border checkpoint on Tuesday morning, using tear gas. KFOR arrested people who were on the barricades. The barricades of soil and gravel are being removed, too. The NATO staff arrest everyone crossing the border using alternative routes.