Serbia

Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu stated that “historical, legal and constitutional” arguments were on “Kosovo’s side” in the ICJ case. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has started proceedings to determine the legality of the February 2008 unilateral independence declaration by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, which Belgrade rejected as an illegal act …

Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović said that Montenegro and Serbia “need to step out of the shadow of Kosovo”. “Differing relations towards Kosovo hinder our relations today. We understand Serbia and we are sorry about the problem it finds itself in because of this. And we believe that we are …

Serbian President Boris Tadic supported on Tuesday Greek Prime Minister Geórgios Papandréou’s initiative for Western Balkan countries to join the EU by 2014. In Athens Tadic and Papandréou talked about Serbia’s European integration, visa liberalization, bilateral relations, situation in the region, and fight with crime.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has announced that Serbia will submit its EU candidacy request by the end of the year, with aim of joining the EU in five to seven years. In an interview for the European Parliament’s official website, Jeremic said that, according to the latest polls, 70 …

The European Parliament is scheduled to give Wednesday the ‘green light’ on annulment of Schengen visas for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro as of December 19, Slovenian MEP Tanja Fajon, who prepared the visa liberalization report for Western Balkan countries, said.

The Serbian parliament committee for Kosovo and Metohija on Tuesday called for all citizens in Kosovo not to vote in the local elections there, scheduled for November 15.

Serbia’s Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic said that Serbs who plan to vote in Kosovo’s local elections this Sunday should ask themselves whether they are helping Belgrade ”save” Kosovo by doing so. Bogdanovic said that: ”Those Serbs who would take part in the elections should ask themselves whether they are …

Sonja Biserko said that she believes that Radovan Karadzic’s tactic to prolong his trial is part of a strategy from Belgrade to obstruct the War Crime Tribunal’s work. Sonja Biserko, director of the Helsinki Committee in Serbia, believes that the work of the Hague Tribunal has had almost no effect …

OSCE mission chief in Serbia, Dimitrios Kypreos said that the mission will work on strengthening the institutions, rule of law, regional cooperation. The Greek diplomat who took over as mission chief in September told daily Politika that none of these questions are more important than the other, because “all democratic …

Montenegrin Deputy Prime Minister Svetozar Marović said that Serbia should be Montenegro’s closest ally in the region. “We expect Serbia to have the same opinion of Montenegro,” Marović said .