Serbia

Serbian Human and Minority Rights Minister Milan Marković has said that elections for the Bosniak National Council will need to be held by the end of the year. “This is a national interest and a need of the Bosniak community and it would be best if this issue

Aleksander Mezyaev, who was on Slobodan Milošević and Vojislav Šešelj’s defense teams, will be Ratko Mladić’s defense counsel. Mezyaev has been interested in leading the defense team ever since Mladić was arrested in the village of Lazarevo.

Head of Priština’s team in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue Edita Tahiri said she expects several agreements will be reached in July. They would refer to freedom of movement, free trade, telecommunications, energy, cadastres and birth registers, said she. Tahiri said that Kosovo has made concessions during the dialogue. 

Oliver Ivanović has confirmed that Serbia prepared a second, modified draft UN resolution meant to define a future probe of the Kosovo human organ trafficking. It represents Belgrade’s proposal to the UN Security Council

Serbian FM Vuk Jeremić says he did not hear from EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule that a new condition for EU accession was to recognize Kosovo as independent. The minister met with Fule in Brussels on Thursday.

Serbia’s FM Vuk Jeremić, who is currently on a visit to Brussels, is scheduled to meet with European Union (EU) Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule today. Late on Wednesday, Jeremić attended in Brussels the opening of the representative office of the town of Niš. 

Belgrade negotiating team chief Borislav Stefanović said on Wednesday that the first concrete results of the Kosovo talks can be expected early next month. This would happen at the regular meeting of delegations of Serbia and the Kosovo Albanian authorities in Brussels.

Serbian President Boris Tadić will pay the first official visit to Sarajevo in the beginning of July. During his visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina the Serbian president will meet with members of Bosnia’s Presidency.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar is paying an official visit to Belgrade. He meets his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic. Up for discussion are situation in the region, bilateral cooperation, Serbia’s European integration and Belgrade-Pristina dialog.

At the end of its EU accession talks, Serbia will have to recognize Kosovo – otherwise German MPs will not approve its accession to the organization. This was heard today from a delegation of visiting German MPs, who held an informal conversation with reporters and editors of Belgrade-based media.