Croatia

The European Commission (EC) plans on establishing a practice of holding mandatory pre-consultations with member states, prior to signing of energy deals with third countries.

This is foreseen in a draft plan for the Energy Union as part of the strategy to diversify the EU's energy suppliers, EurActiv reports.

BELGRADE - Serbia is seeking 1,869 Serbs who went missing in Croatia, and Croatia -over 800 missing persons, said President of the Coalition of Refugee Associations in Serbia Miodrag Linta drawing on the data from the Serbian government's commission on missing persons.

Croatian companies are hailing a number of important agreements reached at a major trade forum in Moscow.

The Croatia-Russia economic forum and investment conference organized on Tuesday gathered more than 250 Russian and 100 Croatian companies.

LJUBLJANA - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will on Friday and Saturday be paying a visit to Slovenia, to be hosted by Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar, the Slovenian government has said in a statement.

Serbian PM, Croatian Storm general meet

ZAGREB -- While in Zagreb recently, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic briefly met and shook hands with former Croatian General Mladen Markac.

Both were attending the inauguration of Croatia's new president. The moment was captured by a photojournalist with the Croatian daily Vecernji List, and the photograph posted on its website.

A court in Hameenlinna, Finland, on Monday fined and paroled two officials of the Finnish state-owned arms company Patria for bribing Croatian officials during a sale of armed vehicles in 2007.

Heikki Hulkkonen and Patria's former representative in Croatia, Reijo Niittynen, were given 20 months parole and a 297,000 euro fine each for offering a bribe of 1.6 million euro.

"Proof needed for claims of media freedom violations"

BRUSSELS -- EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn says he is aware of the allegations of violations of media freedom in Serbia, but that such claims must be supported by evidence.

SOFIA - Serbia will be in the same pool of the 2015 Men's European Volleyball Championship preliminary round with Russia, Slovakia and Finland, a draw in Sofia has decided.

"Ustasha snake doesn't sleep" - Croatia's ex-president

ZAGREB -- Croatia's now former president has spoken about the results of his term in office and the situation in Croatia, saying that "the Ustasha snake does not sleep."

The Ustashas were in power in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) - a WW2-era Nazi-allied entity responsible for running death camps.

Against a background of American disapproval, a major Russia-Croatia economic forum and investment conference started in the Russian capital on Tuesday, gathering 200 Russian and 100 Croatian companies.

The conference opened a day after the EU on Monday broadened sanctions on Russia to include an additional 19 Russians and Ukrainians and nine more Russian companies.