Balkan countries

Russia will continue to try to influence the events in the Balkans, where Serbia is its most important link that serves as a launching ground.

This is according to Beta, which quoted Mark Galeotti of the Institute of International Relations Prague, who spoke for Radio Free Europe's Bosnia-Herzegovina/Serbia/Montenegro service.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday said Serbia had never questioned Bosnia's territorial integrity or interfered with its internal affairs, and that would be the case in the future as well.

He was speaking after meeting the chairman of Bosnia's government, the Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdic, on the second day of his two-day visit to Bosnia.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković urged fellow EU member Slovenia on Thursday to stop its diplomatic "blackmail" related to a border issue between the two ex-Yugoslav republics and return to dialogue.

"The Republic of Turkey is ready for any energy cooperation with the Republic of Bulgaria, which will lead to security of energy supply". This was said by Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albaicar, who met with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Energy Minister Temenujka Petkova as part of a one-day visit to the country yesterday.

Romania and Croatia face a veto from their neighbours, Hungary and Slovenia, on Friday in Paris, when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, discusses their applications for membership.

Hungary on Wednesday said it would block Romania's membership application over the closure of a Hungarian-language Catholic school in Transylvania.

The Serbian Member of Bosnia's three-member state presidency, Mladen Ivanic, said he was keenly awaiting the visit of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, the first Serbian President to come to the country in six years.

Bulgarian and Romanian electricity operators will discuss a deal on providing mutual emergency assistance to secure their energy systems. This was agreed by Minister of Energy Temenujka Petkova and her Romanian counterpart, Toma-Florin Petcu, at a meeting of the joint working group in the field of energy between the two countries held on Tuesday.

Serbian Justice Minister Nela Kuburovic says that the country's court are capable of giving a fair trial to Albanian citizen Ismail Morina.

The Supreme Court of Croatia has confirmed the first instance decision of a local court to extradite Albanian citizen Ismail Morina to Serbia.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic says that relations between Serbia and Slovenia are "good and friendly."

Slovenia is one of Serbia's largest economic partners and provides strong support to Serbia on its European path and its experience in many areas is of exceptional importance useful for Serbia, primarily in the local administration, she said late on Sunday.