Miroslav Lajcak

NEW YORK - Former Serbian FM Vuk Jeremic, Belgrade's candidate for the new UN secretary-general, finished second in Wednesday's sixth round of the informal secret ballot in the UN Security Council behind former Portuguese PM Antonio Guterres, who is now set to succeed South Korea's Ban Ki-moon.

BELGRADE - The UN Security Council elected former Portuguese PM António Guterres as UN Secretary-General, EurActiv.com reports. According to leaked information from the secret vote, he received 13 votes in favour from the 15 members of the Council, and two "without opinion".

NEW YORK - Former Serbian FM Vuk Jeremic, Belgrade's candidate for the new UN secretary general, has moved up to second place after the fifth round of the vote on Monday, with former Portuguese PM Antonio Guterres still in pole position.

Guterres received 12 encourage, 2 discourage and one no opinion votes, while Jeremic had eight encourage, six discourage and one no opinion votes.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov announced on Wednesday that Sofia now supported the candidacy of Kristalina Georgieva for the post of UN Secretary-General

The United Nations Security Council is set to conduct an informal vote on Monday, September 26, that is thought to be decisive in the race for the next UN Secretary General.

The ambassadors of 15 countries to the UN (the 15 ones currently in the Security Council) will be able to "encourage", "discourage" or give "no opinion" each one of the nine candidates.

Novinite is publishing an article authored by Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the occasion of the forthcoming informal EU Summit in Bratislava on Septemer 16, Friday.

Slovakia is currently holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union. 

NEW YORK - A fourth round of the vote to select the new UN secretary-general was held at the UN headquarters in New York Friday, with former Portuguese PM Antonio Guterres still leading the race as Serbia's candidate Vuk Jeremic remains in third position, but with two more encourage votes than in the previous round.

Turkey's foreign and EU ministers have met with ministers from across Europe in Istanbul to discuss the handling of the migrant crisis ahead of an EU ministers meeting in the Netherlands on April 11-12.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu and EU Minister Volkan Bozk?r hosted ministers from the Netherlands, which holds the EU presidency, France, Slovakia and Portugal on April 9.

Western Balkan countries would be worst hit by the collapse of Schengen, Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak has warned.

Lajcak also believes the conditions have not been met for Bosnia-Herzegovina to become a candidate country for EU membership in February.

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak has warned that the EU must not "demotivate" candidates for membership.

He added that the credibility of the enlargement process of the Union depends on whether both sides respect with the agreed rules.