Forms of government

BELGRADE - MEP Igor Soltes voiced confidence on Monday that the first chapters in Serbia's EU accession negotiations will be opened at the beginning of 2015.

BELGRADE - The Serbian government has a plan to increase the number of SMEs from the current 315,000 to 350,000 by 2020, the number of employees from 768,000 to 950,000 and to achieve over three percent of GDP, Katarina Obradovic Jovanovic, assistant to the minister of economy, said on Monday.

The police in Bulgaria's capital Sofia detained 33 people for their planned participation in clashes with ethnic minorities on Sunday.

Most elementary schools and high schools in Serbia will not hold classes on Monday, after four teaching unions decided to intensify a strike launched in mid-November.

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"Serbia no longer run by tycoons," says Vucic

BELGRADE -- "Serbia is no longer run by tycoons," Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said in an interview with the U.S. television network CNN.

"I do not believe that the situation is the same, at least you cannot say that the country is run by tycoons like it was before - no one can say that," Vucic noted.

Bulgaria's parliament has approved the 2015 budget with deficit equivalent to 3% of the projected Gross Domestic Product.

Lawmakers have moved to increase maximum insurable earnings to BGN 2600 M, up from 2400 M envisaged in the current legislation.

bauMax Bulgaria, a unit of Austrian do-it-yourself chain bauMax, has been sold for EUR 1 to Bulgaria's Haedus, money.bg reported on Friday.

According to Sofia-based Pressa daily, the buyer will also assume bauMax Bulgaria's outstanding debt and will cover its 2013 loss of BGN 37 M (EUR 18.5 M), money.bg said.

BELGRADE - Commander of the EU mission to the Central African Republic Brigadier General Jean Marc Bacquet has commended the Serbian Armed Forces medical staff deployed to that country on their efforts to build peace.

BELGRADE - A group of US congresspersons on Friday conveyed to Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic the United States' support in the fight against crime and establishing the rule of law, as well as to Serbia's further EU path.