Serbian Parliament Speaker Slavica Đukić-Dejanović and her Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Litvin met in Belgrade on Monday. They expressed hope that the two countries could establish a visa-free regime by the end of the year, said reports.

Kosovo’s interim president took office Monday in a ceremony boycotted by his predecessor as the government battled to avoid new elections. Former president Behgjet Pacolli failed to show up for the ceremony handing over power to parliamentary speaker Jakup Krasniqi, with his office saying he did not consider it necessary.

Croatia’s negotiations for EU accession are very unlikely to be completed by mid 2011, and will probably drag on into the fall. Contrary to the hopes of the Hungarian EU Presidency that it will be able to complete Croatia’s EU accession talks by June