Slavic

"Serbia to join EU in foreseeable future"

BELGRADE -- Serbia will become an EU member state "in the foreseeable future," German Minister of Food and Agriculture Christian Schmidt has said.

He also described Serbia as "a major factor of cooperation in the region."

OBRENOVAC - Serbia will become an EU member state in the foreseeable future, and it is a major factor of cooperation in the region, says German Minister of Food and Agriculture Christian Schmidt.

Ukraine's state-owned energy utility Naftogaz does not agree on prepayment of gas it receives by Russia, the country's Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said.

Prodan added Kiev would insist to transfer instalments based on the delivered volumes.

BELGRADE/PARIS - Spain and Serbia have exceptional relations and Madrid is offering full support to Serbia's soonest possible accession to the EU, Inigo Ramirez de Haro Valdes, charge d'affaires at the Spanish Embassy in Belgrade, said at a reception marking Spain's national holiday.

Nationalist candidates from Bosnia's Croat, Muslim and Serb communities won the country's three-man presidency, election results showed

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic opened the ECOFair International Fair of Environmental Protection and the Energy 2014 International Energy Fair in Belgrade on Monday, noting that introducing new technologies, experience-sharing and improving business operations is significant for the energy sector.

New Serbian ambassador to U.S. appointed

BELGRADE -- Đerđ Matković has been appointed as the new Serbian ambassador to the United States, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia announced on Monday.

The decree on Matković's appointment has been signed by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić.

Greece’s consulate in Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine, has reopened a few months after being moved elsewhere for security reasons.

Since August, the consulate had been operating out of Dnepropetrovsk due to fighting in the area between Ukrainian forces and Russian separatists.

However, the Greek Foreign Ministry has deemed conditions safe enough in Mariupol for its return.

SARAJEVO - General elections were held in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) on Sunday and nearly 3,300,000 citizens cast their ballots in the polls, and a higher turnout was recorded than in the previous elections in 2010, especially in Republika Srpska (RS).

The elections were conducted without any incidents and polling places closed at 7 p.m.

BELGRADE - Zoran Babic, caucus whip of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) as the central party in the government coalition, stated on Sunday that the information of security services shows that only a dozen Serbian citizens or several dozens at most are fighting on battlefields abroad.