Liberal democracies

The Croatian government said on Thursday that it will revoke controversial Ordinance on the Increase of Import Taxes that threatened to lead to a trade war between Zagreb and neighbouring Balkan countries.

Croatia recently adopted new rules that increased fees for inspections of fruit and vegetable imports from 12 euros to 270 euros.

Romania is on top of the chart of teen pregnancies in the European Union, and just after follows Bulgaria, a study by Eurostat shows.

The largest proportion of teenage births is registered in Romania - 12.3% of the total number of births in teenagers. In Bulgaria these births are 12%. Girls with a child under the age of 15 were 7800 last year, BTA reports.

It is Washington, not Russia, that is bringing disorder to the Balkans, Croatian political analyst Zarko Puhovski has told a Belgrade daily.

Puhovski also stressed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has "repeatedly shown support to Serbia, and wanted to reduce Croatia's institutional advantage as members of the European Union, in relation to Serbia, which is not a member."

BELGRADE - Serbia cannot understand how one can celebrate Croatia's 1995 "Operation Storm", Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said on Friday.

"We cannot understand how one can celebrate the fact that an entire country was practically ethnically cleansed at the time," Brnabic told a press conference.

PODGORICA - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic met in Podgorica on Wednesday with US Vice President Mike Pence, expressing her satisfaction with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's recent working visit to Washington as a boost to further development of cooperation between the two countries.

They met on the fringes of a US-Adriatic Charter summit.

BELGRADE - Serbia will turn to the European Commission over Croatia's decision to introduce non-tariff barriers to imports of agricultural products from Serbia and other non-EU countries, Serbian Deputy PM and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic announced on Tuesday.

Ivica Dacic says Serbia "does not agree" with US Vice President Mike Pence's statement about Russia "redrawing borders in the Balkans by force."

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic will take part in an August 2 US-Adriatic Charter meeting in Podgorica, Montenegro, where she will have a bilateral meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence.

The famed performance artist Marina Abramovic was in Serbia and in Montenegro in recent days, a Belgrade-based daily is reporting.

The 70-year-old's visit to Montenegro was organized by Petar Cukovic, her longtime friend, art historian, lecturer at the Faculty of Visual Arts in Podgorica, and art director of the Dukley European Art Community.

More than half of Greeks cannot afford to go for a one-week holiday, according to research conducted and released Monday by Eurostat, the European Union's statistics service.