Social Issues

Austria and Luxembourg have agreed to back EU plans to increase transparency in tax reporting at a summit in Brussels, Thursday.

Around 1500 people gathered Thursday evening in Sofia in a protest against a construction clearance in a protected Black Sea coastal area.

According to reports of dnevnik.bg, the rally was attended by some 4000 demonstrators.

Leaders of political parties predicted election results for Blic Vucic made mistake in case of LDP and DSS only

Leaders of political parties including Aleksandar Vucic, have failed to guess which political parties would not go over the census.

The government on Thursday removed from a draft immigration law a provision foreseeing the expulsion of immigrants found to have made false claims of racially motived violence after the proposed measure nearly caused a rift in the fragile coalition.

BELGRADE - The Serbian government's team for social inclusion and poverty reduction, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy and the Office for Cooperation with the Civil Society called on all interested organizations to submit comments on the draft of the first part of the Employment and Social Reform Program (ESRP) until March 26.

BELGRADE - The budget deficit amounted to RSD 33.4 billion in the first two months of 2014, while only in February it stood at RSD 26.4 billion, the Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday.

In February, Serbia made revenues of RSD 58.8 billion, and expenditures of RSD 85.2 billion, not factoring in revenues and expenditures of indirect budget beneficiaries.

BELGRADE - The Japanese government allocated a donation to the value of some EUR 155,000 to the Zagubica and Svilajnac healthcare centres for the procurement of ambulance vehicles and medical equipment.

Changes to an existing law that grants benefits to war victims and veterans were approved by 69 lawmakers on Thursday.

Human rights campaigners in Pristina welcomed the decision, saying it was “high time” to legally acknowledge rape victims of the conflict.

Drug boss reportedly "angry at two politicians"

BELGRADE -- Darko Šarić's lawyer Radoslav Bačević has told B92 that his client will reject the charges against him when he appears before the Special Court on Monday.

Šarić, a Montenegrin who has been given Serbian citizenship, is suspected of heading a drug smuggling gang and was arrested on Tuesday.

"Debt reduction requires major budget cuts"

BELGRADE -- An International Monetary Fund mission will visit Serbia for talks on a new three-year arrangement with the country shortly after a new government is formed.